“Innovation protected by IP rights is key to creating new jobs and growing exports. Innovation has a positive pervasive effect on the entire economy, and its benefits flow both upstream and downstream to every sector of the U.S. economy. Intellectual property is not just the final product of workers and companies—every job in some way, produces, supplies, consumes or relies on innovation, creativity, and commercial distinctiveness. Protecting our ideas and IP promotes innovative, open, and competitive markets, and helps ensure that the U.S. private sector remains America’s innovation engine.”
The role of mobile devices in our lives has grown exponentially and we can't imagine our lives without them anymore. The demand for mobile devices has increased, and the number of the units manufactured as well. Accordingly, companies strive even further to beat the competition and invent something else more innovative than their competitors. In order to protect their inventions, companies file more and more patents in order to keep their competitive advantage.
The number of mobile related patents has grown significantly over the last decade. The US market saw 390% increase in mobile related patents while European market 173 % increase.
The leaders in the number of mobile related patents are the companies who have been players for a long time especially in infrastructure and platform space. Two biggest players are Nokia and Samsung.
Conclusion : as we can see from the trends discussed above, mobile is becoming a critical tool to drive technological growth. It is important to analyze the mobile patent landscape and see how the companies are shaping up the ecosystem and in which areas they are focusing their innovation. It is helpful not only for companies in mobile industry but also end users who want to be on edge of the technology and become early adapters. Current trends suggest that in 2014 a quarter of all patents filed will be mobile related. Mobile will keep progressing as the technology engine and the companies that understand the value of intellectual property will keep investing into their IP protection.
Read more at IPCloseup
wow! great graphs to help demonstrate the growth. In light of the current expansion of the mobile market trade, how do you think the patent offices will be able to handle the influx of patent applications? Do you think they're going to speed up or lag even more?
ReplyDeleteSeeing Nokia's position in patents granted for 2011 just goes to show how dynamic and ever-changing this industry is... personally I would not be surprised if Apple follows a bit of the same path as Nokia, not for patents filed, but rather their loss of market share...
ReplyDeleteThe graphs are really telling. I am curious as to why Europe is not mimiking the US though. Maybe it is just the electronic cultural difference. Also the fact that Nokia went from the top of the list to the bottom is interesting. It seems that they have shifted their focus entirely.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised how many of the patents pertain to the communications / wireless systems of the devices; i didn't realize there is so much innovation / progress in those spaces, since user-interface patents get the most publicity (ex. rubber banding). We really take those elements of the phone for granted!
ReplyDelete