ZTE, a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has announced that it is now one of the world’s leading vendors of essential patents (EP) for LTE standards, securing 235 patents, it says.
As of 30 November 2010, ZTE says it had a 7% share of the total LTE essential patents declared on the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) online database of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
The company’s share of LTE essential patents is a result of ZTE’s continuous R&D investment into LTE-related key technologies since 2004. As of the end of 2010, ZTE had submitted more than 6800 proposals to 3GPP, of which more than 3900 proposals involved LTE/SAE technologies, and had made more than 2900 LTE-related patent applications.
Looking ahead, ZTE aims to increase its current share of LTE essential patents from 7% to 10% by 2012, according to Mr. Hu Jian, Vice President of ZTE. The company will also commit more R&D resources to accumulate essential patents and adopt a pro-active approach in improving 4G and developing 4G+ standards.
“With LTE essential patents being evenly distributed among different vendors, we believe that it will be helpful to provide a comparatively healthy and balanced IPR licensing environment for the development of the 4G industry,” said Mr. Hu.
Mr. Hu also emphasised that ZTE had been committed to following the FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) principle for any company wanting to achieve a patent license from ZTE Corporation. “As 3GPP standards continue to migrate, there is no doubt that ZTE will contribute more essential solutions to LTE and its evolved standards”.