Growing Siemens’ patent licensing programme

Siemens has an extensive portfolio of Intellectual Property (IP) covering
a wide range of communications technologies. To optimise licensing revenues, Siemens’ licensing division needs to understand which patents are Essential to which communications standards. But this is difficult: licensing departments often do not have in-depth knowledge of all the relevant communications standards – and it can be difficult to get access to engineers with relevant skills. Also, the sheer size of Siemens’ patent portfolio makes it time consuming to evaluate large numbers of patents.

Siemens turned to PA for help. Engineers in PA’s Wireless Technology group have a unique combination of skills: in addition to developing wireless hardware and software they understand patent claim language and how to locate Essential patents. PA has developed a unique rapid patent evaluation service which allows it to scan patent portfolios like Siemens’ and locate and evaluate the relatively small percentage of Essential patents.

Initially for WCDMA, and subsequently for cdma2000 and WiMAX, PA used its rapid patent evaluation skills to locate potentially Essential patents from large candidate lists provided by Siemens. PA’s engineers then worked with Siemens’ patent attorneys and engineers to evaluate these potentially Essential patents in detail, including developing claim charts where appropriate.

PA’s efforts helped Siemens grow its Essential IP portfolio in the three
technologies and present a clear picture of the portfolio to its licensees.

To find out more about our essential patent expertise please contact us