The relationship between patent filings and development of IoT-related technologies. By Drew Rudhall
The phrase ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is now ubiquitous. Indeed, IoT-specific technologies are found in a wide variety of domains including industrial sensing and control, health and sports tracking, vehicle monitoring and control, environmental sensing, among many others.
The concept of IoT does not have a formal definition but generally refers to any physical device that can be connected to a wireless network for data exchange. The intended application of an IoT device characterizes its requirements in terms of data latency, data reliability, data bandwidth, device power consumption, device processing capability and other capabilities.
Research and development in IoT technology is quietly and robustly progressing. This is apparent from analysis of patent submissions in various technology sub-domains.
Since all IoT devices need to communicate over a network, patent filings in wireless technologies are accumulating. Fifth generation (5G) cellular has been particularly important to IoT development in recent years since technical standards are being developed collaboratively by many companies to solve problems that relate to the wireless connectivity of IoT devices.
Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT)
At the lower end of capability, 5G technologies include so-called Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT), which is considered to be suitable for low-power, low-data exchange rate IoT devices.
A significant number of patent applications that mention NB-IoT in their description are published each year, as demonstrated by Figure 1. This peaked in 2021, probably reflecting NB-IoT being an important project around that time for the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), whose contributors developed the technical standards. These contributors filed patent applications to protect their innovations, which if granted and adopted into a standardized technical specification, become ‘standard essential’. However, patent filing numbers do not necessarily indicate a direct correlation to commercial relevance since technical standards need to be developed prior to mass market release of a product implementing those technologies.
At a higher level of capability, 5G specifies standards for enhanced Machine-Type Communication (eMTC), which provides higher data rates than for NB-IoT. Devices with eMTC functionality are suited to applications involving consumer devices such as wearables and security systems, which may have a need for voice capabilities and/or the ability to exchange more data.
As shown by Figure 2, a significant number of patent applications that mention e-MTC in their description are published each year, though the overall number is lower than for NB-IoT. The patent filing frequency for eMTC follows a very similar pattern as the patent filing frequency for NB-IoT, with a peak in publications again observed in 2021.
At the upper end of capability, 5G technologies include enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC).
eMBB has use cases in high bandwidth consumer applications such as high-definition (HD) and ultra-HD video and extended reality applications. The patent publication data for eMBB is shown in Figure 3 and highlights that the publication peak occurs in 2022.
URLLC is important in mission-critical applications that require high dependability. Thus, URLLC has relevance in multiple applications that require superlative control and synchronization such as autonomous vehicles, electrical distribution, remote surgery and manufacturing. Figure 4 includes the patent publication data for URLLC, which demonstrates a very similar trend to that seen for eMBB.
As is apparent from a comparison of Figures 1 to 4, the overall number of patent filings has been highest for eMBB and URLLC-related applications, potentially reflecting the higher commercial relevance of these 5G technology sub-domains.
Looking forwards, sixth generation (6G) technologies are being developed with a focus on even higher data rates and even lower latency.
Capabilities being developed for 6G include integrating natively AI into networks. This is perhaps reflected in the patent statistics for two patent search classifications that might be associated with native AI-network integration (via G06N for AI-based networks and H04W for wireless communication networks), which demonstrate a clearly increasing trend in Figure 5.
Development of 5G technical standards has yielded a huge market for IoT devices that continues to underpin economic growth. These technical standards support future developments that could have significant relevance in the smart manufacturing domain, including predictive maintenance, edge computing and smart factories. By leveraging ultra reliable, low latency and/or high data rate technologies, manufacturers can optimize their processes, enhance product development and facilitate an overall smarter strategy for building, maintaining and growing their operations. Based on current experience of how 5G innovations prompted a wide variety of innovations in the manufacturing domain, it can be anticipated that the development and standardization of 6G technologies will yield significant benefits in advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Drew Rudhall
Drew Rudhall works at Reddie & Grose LLP, a leading intellectual property firm specializing in patents, trademarks and designs in the UK, Europe and worldwide. The firm supports businesses of every size, from start-ups to global brands, in protecting innovation in more than 100 countries. Its services include strategic IP advice, clearance searches, drafting and prosecuting applications, registrations and renewals, oppositions, disputes, enforcement, and portfolio management designed to maximize commercial value.
