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Jun. 24, 2009

Throughout the whole wireless and mobile phone industry, efforts in creating a patent pool for LTE technology are facing many road blocks.

Overall, it’s rather challenging to create and maintain successful patent pools simply because you need almost everybody inside the pool to begin with.

If a company with a lot of patent rights stays out of the pool, it’s almost impossible to make it work, said Ericsson Chief Technology Officer Hakan Eriksson.

He didn’t say whether Ericsson is committed in staying out, but it doesn’t sound like the company, which may hold anywhere from 15 percent to 25 percent of LTE patents, is jumping in head first either...

Meanwhile, and as the wireless industry matures, patent fights likely will become less frequent among the big players. Many mobile phone carriers already have settled long-standing litigation. The real problem, Eriksson says, lies in patent trolls, or those that hold a patent but don’t do anything with it until they want a piece of the action later in the game.

Eriksson’s comments came during an interview at Ericsson’s first-ever Business Innovation Forum, where about 121 journalists are gathered at Ericsson’s headquarters to learn more about the company beyond its traditional infrastructure supplier role.

Company CEO Carl Svanberg kicked off the two-day conference, noting Ericsson’s longevity in the industry.

In 1991, a Swedish newspaper questioned who really needed a wireless phone. Now, 4 billion users are wireless users, and the mobile phone has changed the world, literally.

During a presentation by Professor Kristina Hook of the Mobile Life Center at Stockholm University, she explained that rather than do behavioral studies, the center’s philosophy is to let people create services on their own.

Hook demonstrated how wearing a sensor system on her body that uses Bluetooth can transmit information like pulse waves during tense situations such as like public speaking.

“People take this and find patterns in their own life. I can find these patterns that make sense to me and I can adjust behavior accordingly,” said Hook.

After a weekend that included iPhone 3G S sales topping 1 million, the event couldn’t go without a question or two about the iPhone, even though the conference is Ericsson-centric rather than focusing on phone maker Sony Ericsson, which has a more limited presence in the market.

Asked why it took someone outside the industry like Apple to create something as successful and user-friendly as the iPhone, Eriksson noted that Apple’s modus operandi was to not listen strictly to the wireless operator, which historically has driven U.S. handset makers’ products.

Instead, Apple initially set forth with a $500 device, ignoring long-time industry warnings that a device wouldn’t sell at that price point. He also noted that iPhone volumes are still small compared to the entire handset market.

Hook added that the iPhone allowed mobile device designers who are in contact with real people to be really in charge with the whole project, and the designers at other handset makers are now getting more power in their own endeavors as a result.

Ever since Nortel went into bankruptcy protection more than five months ago, speculators have suggested that Ericsson, one of the few remaining large infrastructure players, would acquire many divisions of Nortel.

Meanwhile, an Ericsson spokesman said he could not comment on any interest the company might have in what’s left of Nortel, including its GSM business.

On June 19, Nortel surprised many wireless industry observers when it announced an agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks to acquire its CDMA and LTE technology assets, the latter of which is presumed to consist mostly of patents.

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Source: Ericsson.