IPR Working Group

Interest Group on Patent Pools (IGPP)
Contact: Stefan ENGEL-FLECHSIG, NGMN Legal Counsel (office(at)ngmn.org)

Scope & Objectives

Objectives of the IGPP:

• Help to understand benefits and limitations of patent pools
• Support new initiatives of NGMN Partners

Main Deliverable

Request for Information (RFI) on LTE Patent Pool Administration, revised version dated 11 February 2010.

Achievements

In 2009, NGMN launched a "Request for Information" (RFI) on LTE Patent Pool Administration and received feedback from major LTE Licensing Administrators.

The RFI and evaluation continued the successful IPR activities conducted by NGMN in the past two years with the objective to bring more transparency in the next generation mobile ecosystem about envisaged patent pool activities in LTE as one of the NGMN technologies. Licensing Administrators answered to the NGMN RFI and presented their responses in more detail to all interested NGMN Partners. NGMN invited all Partners to form an "Interest Group on Patent Pools" (IGPP) and concluded the review and assessment of the RFI responses by early 2010. NGMN will continue to observe future patent pool activities.

IPR Plenary

Contact: Stefan ENGEL-FLECHSIG, NGMN Legal Counsel (office(at)ngmn.org)

Scope & Objectives

NGMN has addressed IPR issues from the very beginning of its activities.

Objectives of the IPR Plenary are to

• Increase transparency on royalty rates;
• Provide early opportunities for buyers of technology (operators, manufacturers etc.) to consider IPR cost of potential next generation technologies.

IPR licensing has become a subject for debate in the industry as mobile technologies evolve in terms of performance, complexity, and customer acceptance. As a consequence, standards setting organisations have started to review their IPR policies to achieve increased transparency of standards-essential IPR and associated licensing commitments during the standardisation process.

Next Generation Mobile Networks Ltd. (NGMN) has established an "IPR Plenary" in 2007, engaging all NGMN Partners (Members, Sponsors, and Advisors) coming together on a regular basis for meetings in an effort to progress IPR related topics.

Organisation & Governance

To reflect the broad support for the chosen TTP Process across the mobile industry, the NGMN Alliance has established an "IPR Plenary" in which all NGMN Partners are represented by nominated delegates. The IPR Plenary is chaired by a Chairman elected from the Members (mobile operators) and a Vice-Chairman elected from the Sponsors (vendors/manufacturers). According to the IPR Terms of Reference, the IPR Plenary is the central forum for IPR activities within NGMN.

In accordance with the NGMN Participation Guidelines,
the NGMN IPR Guidelines and the defined NGMN processes, the overall tasks of the IPR Plenary are to conclude on IPR issues and work items, and to render IPR recommendations to the NGMN Board for decision. The tasks also include assessing market developments, to discuss issues and to maintain consensus regarding NGMN's IPR Policy and related processes by concluding on recommended corrective action where necessary.

Main Deliverables

Main deliverables of the IPR Working Group are:

• IPR Guidelines;
• Agreement on Trusted Third Party process;
• Installation of a Trusted Third Party;
• TTP Process Reports (only available to NGMN Partners on request).

Achievements

• Ground-breaking agreement in the mobile industry on NGMN's IPR Guidelines;
• Implementation of the IPR Guidelines including IPR Plenary and Trusted Third Party Process;
• Greater transparency of IPR terms and conditions available to NGMN Partners upon request;
• Enabling discussion on Patent Pool Administration via issuing an RFI.

The introduction of IPR Guidelines along with the commitment to follow a "Trusted Third Party IPR Process" (the "TTP Process") was agreed by full consensus between the NGMN Partners in 2007. The agreed IPR Principles and TTP Process steps meet the requirements of existing NGMN Partners and enable broad vendor participation in NGMN:

• Mandatory ex-ante disclosure of certain IPR terms & conditions to an external law firm acting as a Trusted Third Party;
• Ensuring transparency of IPR cost per technology with the support of IPR holders;
• Applicable to all proposed standards as identified in the IPR Guidelines (3GPP LTE, 3GPP2 Ultra Mobile Broadband, IEEE 802.16m, IEEE 802.20) prior to their approval by the respective standards bodies;
• As a result of the TTP Process, anonymous and aggregated licensing terms & conditions are provided to NGMN Partners; and
• The TTP Process will be iterated on a regular basis triggered by NGMN.

By informing NGMN Members of indicative aggregated IPR cost up-front, this TTP Process provides an early opportunity for technology customers to consider the IPR cost of potential next generation technologies in their internal business decision-making processes. The TTP Process also provides valuable input information for the bilateral, commercial dialogues between individual technology customers and technology providers. This approach will foster an environment of increased investment and innovation, thus accelerating the adoption of mobile broadband services.

TTP Process rounds were executed with all NGMN Partners during 2007 and 2009.

After the last round was terminated, the main standards were approved by SDO's and most of the patent owners published their royalty rates on public websites. Subsequently in April 2009, the IPR Plenary was put into a dormant mode until tasked with further activities by the NGMN Board.