It has been found that Apple is ahead of Samsung Electronics in the number of registered US patents directly related to LTE smart phones.
Apple has recently purchased a lot of LTE patents to better vie with Samsung Electronics in the telecom industry. Experts are forecasting that the latter, which has overwhelmed its archrival in its battle over 3G telecom patents, will not be able to do so as far as LTE patents are concerned.
The Electronics Times and TechIPm, an American intellectual property consulting firm, analyzed the LTE patents of both companies registered at the US Patent and Trademark Office on November 21 and found that Samsung and Apple owned 84 and 91 patents directly related to LTE telephony, respectively. The number of the patents that can immediately be used in lawsuits was 44 vs. 48.
Samsung outdid Apple in terms of the number of standard patents (17 vs. 2) and communication protocol patents (19 vs. 14). Meanwhile, Apple surpassed Samsung when it comes to modem-related patents (77 vs. 65) thanks to its acquisition of Nortel, which had a quantity of patents related to base station equipment. 90% of Apple’s LTE patents were acquired by transfer from Nortel and the other 10% from Freescale Semiconductor.
