It is widely believed that the ownership of standard essential patents is a very valuable bargaining tool in standard competition and cross-license negotiations, especially in the field of mobile telecommunication. In this paper the LTE standardisation process is described. The research emphases of 3GPP Release 11, Release 12 and Release 13 are summarized. The role of ETSI's management for ICT standard essential patents is introduced. The competition status of major countries and assignees about LTE standard specifications is revealed based on the LTE standard essential patents deriving from the ETSI intellectual property rights database. The global patents layout of major countries and assignees is obtained based on LTE standard essential patents deriving from the Derwent Innovations Index database. And it is concluded that in the coming 5G era, it is significant to grasp the opportunity of LTE standard evolution, to disclose standard essential patents proactively and to carry out a balanced patent layout for both global market and key technology.

mobile communicaiton  /  3GPP  /  LTE  /  standard essential patent  /  ETSI