Nokia’s patent leadership has been confirmed, once again, by independent research. In their newly published study, IPLytics has ranked Nokia as No.1 for ownership of active and granted US/EP patents declared as essential to 5G standards and No.2 for ownership of declared and granted patents that IPLytics, by applying its own analysis, found essential to 5G standards.* The study also ranked Nokia among the top contributors to the development of 5G standards.**

The study confirms our leadership in 5G, finding Nokia to be a leader in ownership of 5G patents in both qualitative and quantitative terms. This follows the independent study by PA Consulting, which also concluded that Nokia is No.1 for ownership of granted patents that the researchers found essential to 5G standards.

These independent findings reflect the significant contribution we make to developing industry standards, our investment in research and development, and the strength of Nokia’s patent portfolio. For over three decades, we have been significantly contributing to the development of industry standards, holding a variety of leadership positions in major industry standardization bodies. We invest over €4 billion in R&D every year and filed patent applications on over 1,500 new inventions in 2020 alone. Our portfolio has around 20,000 patent families (each family being composed of several individual patents), including more than 3,500 patent families for 5G. In our website in the Nokia innovations gallery, we are showcasing 13,000 inventions that originate from our research.

But the strength of a company’s patent portfolio is about much more than just numbers, because they tell very little about the quality of the inventions. For Nokia, quality is a key priority. The quality of the patents we declare as essential to 5G or to any standard is high – a fact we have proven many times in courts. And we strive to keep only high-quality patents in our portfolio.

The findings of the IPLytics study are also a tribute to the work of Nokia inventors. Without their patented inventions – and other contributions to open standards by other inventors – we wouldn’t be able to make a mobile phone call or stream videos. A connected car wouldn’t be able to automatically alert the emergency services in the event of a car crash. Remote healthcare or remote learning wouldn’t be possible. Colleagues past and present helped to make these technologies a reality and our inventors are now busy working on 5G, 6G, and other emerging technologies. So, a big thank you from me to them, for everything they do.

*In their independent assessment, IPLytics mapped 1000 randomly selected patent families declared to the 5G standards and applied resultant essentiality rates to 5G declared portfolios with at least one US or EP patent.
 
**Reference to a study in this blog post does not equate to Nokia’s unreserved endorsement.