Dr. Tal Lavianhttp://cs.berkeley.edu/~tlavian

tlavian@cs.berkeley.eduUC Berkeley Engineering, CET

Standard Essential Patents3G and 4G Standards

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Standards

Imagine you just bought an iPhone. You expect it to be able to call an Android, a 3G phone, a landline…

People want phones to be compatible with all other phones.

Therefore, there are industry wide standards of phone operation. Standard compliant phones can “talk” to other standard compliant phones.

Example of standards: Wi-Fi, UMTS, GSM, GPRS

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Standards

Who sets the standards? Committees (representatives from multiple companies).

Voluntary Standard Setting Organizations (SSO)Example: IEEE-SA

The process involves long, painstaking negotiation between competing interests.

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Standard Essential Patents

Wi-Fi covers many small details of phone operation (for example, data encoding)

A specific patent might cover the standard-compliant way of, say, data encoding

Such a patent would be standard essential.

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Standard Essential Patents

When complying with a particular standard, instruments simply MUST implement a variety of standard essential patents.

It is no coincidence that when a firm takes part in an SSO, its patents are more likely to become SE.

Due to firms’ investment in existing standards, the more SEPs a standard has, the more likely it is to be upgraded frequently instead of replaced.

The creation of SEP pools leads to patenting peaks prior to pool creation.

Essential Patents and Standard Dynamics by Baron, Pohlmann, and Blind, 2011Patent Pools and Patent Inflation by Baron and Pohlmann, 2012

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SEP Pools

Patent pools combine patents from multiple companies for licensing purposes

Easier to know what royalties to pay and to who!

Also, reduce royalty rates, transaction costs, likelihood of infringement litigation.

FTC considers them a good, pro-competitive solution.

Patent Pools and Patent Inflation by Baron and Pohlmann, 2012

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FRAND or RAND

“Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory" 

The owners of SEPs agree to license them out to anyone (even competitors) for a fair and reasonable price.

Note FireWire vs USB: companies that overcharge for their SEPs may render their respective standards unpopular. The goodness of an invention is easily trumped by its

cost.

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RAND

All SEP holders must agree to make the patent available at a reasonable price before a standards committee makes the patent an SEP.

http://standards.ieee.org/about/sasb/patcom/pat802_11.html

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Questions to Consider:

Is it possible to set a standard that avoids all patents or software copyrights?

Is it possible to set a standard with full knowledge of all patents contained therein?

Once a standard is set, can it be easily altered to avoid using a patent from a RAND-unwilling individual?

Is it acceptable that there is constant lobbying on the part of corporate patent interests during the standard setting process?

Treacy and Lawrance, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2008, Vol. 3, No. 1

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RAND: what’s a reasonable price?

Many conflicting opinions! Should price be based on… Percent of available profit from technology? Industry comparisons in comparable markets? The number of patents held by the licensor as compared to

the total number of patents necessary to make the product? How innovative and important the patent is to the standard? How much it cost to invent the patent (R&D)?

Should price take into account the total royalty burden of someone bringing a product to market?

Treacy and Lawrance, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2008, Vol. 3, No. 1

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RAND: what’s a reasonable price?

Judge Richard Posner (June 2012, Apple vs Motorola):

“The proper method of computing a FRAND royalty starts with what the cost to the licensee would have been of obtaining, just before the patented invention

was declared essential to compliance with the industry standard, a license for the function

performed by the patent. ”

Further court developments are currently taking place!

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Questions to Consider:

If RAND was strong, binding, and clear, would there be so many ongoing SEP related court cases?

Is there some better option?

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Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASIC(Infineon X-

Gold)

http://whataiphone.com/schematics/iphone-4-back-circuit-pcb-board.html

Source:

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Protocol Stack15

ASIC

DSP

ARM Modem

Display

ProtocolStack

Access Stratum16

MODEM

Access Stratum

Host Processor

Math Processing

Com Processing

What is a Protocol Stack17

Software that permits phones to communicate with cellular towers

Rules for formatting data in an electronic communications system

Logically organized in hierarchy of layers or a “stack”

OSI Layers

3G and 4G—integrating data into phones:

Application layer

Presentation layer

Session layer

Transport layer

Network layer

Data Link layer

Physical layer

Application layer

Presentation layer

Session layer

Transport layer

Network layer

Data Link layer

Physical layer

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Protocol stack in mobile phones19

The “top” is the application layer -- the source of the data being sent (e.g., Skype)

The “bottom” is the physical or data link layer -- actual bits and bytes

Application layer

Presentation layerSession layer

Transport layer

Network layer

Data Link layer

Physical layer

UpLink and DownLink in Protocol Stack

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Application

Application

Wireless Link

ThroughCell Tower

Application

Presentation

Session

Transport

Network

Data Link

Physical

Application

Presentation

Session

Transport

Network

Data Link

Physical

Analogy – Postal System21

Letters (i.e., the data units) are transferred between sorting offices (i.e., the protocol stack layers/modules)

DownLink (Transmit) Path22

End-user application (e.g., Skype, email, text messaging) program sends data

Data works its way down sending device’s protocol stack

Protocol stack processes, and manipulates data.

Data Sent by User

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

Wireless Link

Transmit Data Processing23

Header information added

Data or packets divided to form smaller packets

Data compressed

At “bottom” of stack, data is placed on wireless air link and transmitted to cellular tower

Data Sent by User

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

Wireless Link

UpLink (Receive) Path 24

Following reception of signal by receiving antenna, data works its way up stack on receiving device

Each layer reverses processing done by corresponding layer on sending device:

Data Received by User

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

Wireless Link

Receive Data Processing 25

Headers removed

Data packets recombined

Data decompressed

At “top” of stack, data is delivered to user application (e.g., Skype, email, text messaging)

Data Received by User

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

Wireless Link

Point-to-point Communications

Device to cell tower, communications via protocol stack

Transport layer

Network layer

Data Link layer

Physical layer

Transport layer

Network layer

Data Link layer

Physical layer

Data sent by user

Data received by user

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3G Access27

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

Access

PHY

MAC

BMC

   

PDCP

RRC

RLC

Non Access Stratum 

Medium Access Control (“MAC”)28

Situated between physical layer and Radio Link Control (“RLC”)

Acts as interface between those two components

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

PHY

MAC

BMC

   

PDCP

RRC

RLC

Non Access Stratum 

Radio Link Control (“RLC”)29

Resides above MAC Obtains data from MAC

and transmits it to appropriate modules:

- PDCP in case of emails or other user

data- BMC in case of broadcast messages- RRC in case of control signaling

Layer 3

Layer 2

Layer 1

PHY

MAC

BMC

   

PDCP

RRC

RLC

Non Access Stratum 

RLC Functions30

Data Segmentation divides data into smaller packets before transmission

and reassembles data after reception

Error Correction determines when data has been lost during

transmission and requests retransmission where appropriate

Memory Control controls memory used for storing and managing user

data, preventing it from becoming fragmented and drained

Radio Resource Controller (“RRC”)31

Located in layer 3 above RLC Controls other modulesControls portions of physical layerSets appropriate configuration for modules:

instructs MAC to enter into appropriate mode depending on whether it is processing email, streaming video, or voice data

instructs RLC to enter into voice or data mode as appropriate

3rd Generation Partnership Project32

“3GPP”Standards body that develops 3rd (and

future) generation wireless technologies that build upon the base provided by 2G (GSM) technologies

Responsible for the UMTS standard, as well as HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, and LTE.

2G to 4G transition33

How is 4G different

OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access)

Simpler, flattened architecture

Higher throughput

Support for mobility between 3GPP and non-3GPP access technologies.

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Concepts to know:

StandardsSSOs SEPsSEP poolsRANDOSI model 3GRLC, MAC, RRC4G

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