Sweden based Ericsson, the world’s leading mobile telecommunications equipment vendor, is reportedly planning to increase revenues from its 27,000 patents as devices from toys to energy meters get wireless access, as said by CEO, Hans Vestberg.
According to reports, Vestberg claims that by 2015 two thirds of all consumer electronics devices will have some sort of connectivity and any company or manufacturer that wants to get in there will require an agreement with Ericsson. The firm currently has the industry’s largest portfolio of wireless communication patents and believes that increased revenue from rights would help smooth out fluctuations in network orders.
As per sources, Vestberg has said that the intellectual property covers basically everything in the telecom industry, including the world’s largest collection of WiFi patents. Sources reveal that revenue from patents went up from $ 368 in 2006 to $847 in 2010. Vestberg also said that if they are going to get 50 billion connected devices in 2020 it’s not only going to be handsets. He added that it is not going to be practical for them to make bilateral negotiations with all the manufacturers, and that they need new business models and need to work in groups.
Vestberg claims that the connected devices may include shipping containers that transmit their position and interior temperature, as well as appliances that are hooked into a network. He also revealed Ericsson’s plans to get royalties from intellectual property in areas it hasn’t monetized before, such as Web search and optical transmissions.
As per sources, Ericsson had entered into a transaction along with other companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Sony in July to buy 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks Corp for $ 4.5 billion. Vestberg reportedly said that this transaction was important for Ericsson as it didn’t have a deal covering those patents.
According to reports, industry analysts have valued Ericsson’s patents at $ 15.5 billion, on the basis of Google’s agreement to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings for $ 12.5 billion. Vestberg has said that the company has more than 90 licensing deals for its core technologies with handset companies and infrastructure producers. He added that they are not looking to sell patents but to receive recurrent revenue.