Latest patent assignments suggest upcoming monetisation campaigns
LLCs and licensing companies were active in the market for wireless and multimedia patents
By Jacob Schindler
Transactions watch is a bimonthly Sisvel Insights feature. Our aim is to help patent owners, technology users and their advisers stay abreast of patent transfers with the potential to affect the licensing landscape. It is entirely based on public records and news reports.
The main focus is on fields of technology subject to significant standardisation – including mobile communications, wireless networking and multimedia – but we also highlight deals in other technology areas that catch our attention.
Discussion of the technology covered by various patents is based solely on keywords in the patent titles – readers can review the patents in full via the linked transaction documents.
The secondary market for patents continues to show an appetite for wireless and multimedia assets. NXP, Toshiba and NEC are among the operating companies to have divested patents in recent months, in transactions where monetisation appears to be the buyer’s objective.
Below are these and the other recorded patent transactions that caught our eye in September and October.
Wireless
NXP Semiconductors transferred 23 US patent assets to Velocity Communication Technologies LLC, a first-time assignee. The patents, granted between 2012 and 2020, appear related to wireless communications. Sample titles include: “Improvements in or relating to radio receivers”, “Antenna for wireless communications”, and “Beamforming using predefined spatial mapping matrices”. The transfer was executed in March.
Integral Wireless Technologies LLC, another first-time assignee, received 60 patents in four tranches from multiple Intellectual Ventures vehicles. The assets span a very wide range of technologies – from semiconductors to vehicle air conditioning. A number of the patents appear related to wireless. Examples include a patent for “Communication on multiple beams between stations” originally assigned to Nokia, and one on “Virtual soft hand over in OFDM and OFDMA wireless communication network” originally assigned to ZTE.
Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation made two small transfers to the South Korea-based International Semiconductor Group, extending a relationship that dates back to 2022. The assignee describes itself as an IP solutions provider. The firm’s website states it owns more than 50 patent families related to Wi-Fi 5 and 6. Four assets were transacted, their titles are:
Wireless communication system, wireless base station, wireless terminal and method of wireless communication
Radio communication apparatus, computer readable storage medium, and radio communication system
Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method
Wireless communication apparatus with physical layer processing module and MAC layer processing module and its communication method
According to assignments recorded in September, FG Innovation transferred hundreds of US patents to Sharp in July. The two companies share Foxconn as a corporate parent. In filings disclosing the related party transaction to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the portfolio is described as “telecommunication related patents related to 4G/5G SEPs etc”.
Multimedia
VideoLabs made its latest acquisition of video streaming patents from Zing Communications Inc, which describes itself as an “IP centric 5G IoT disruptor with IP monetization as an integral element of our story”. According to VideoLabs, the two patents relate to transcoding, subscriber management and live video.
Other notable transactions
Two transactions executed in August appear to represent the first US patent transfers between Chinese tech giants Xiaomi and Huawei. The former assigned the latter five patents in total, which appear to be geared toward mobile devices, mobile apps, geolocation and image transmission.
RPX picked up 30 US patent assets from Finnish cybersecurity firm WithSecure.
IBM acquired over 100 US patents in connection with its purchase of integration software assets from Germany’s Software AG.
Singapore-based IP Wave Pte. was assigned 41 patent assets by an affiliate of Japan’s NEC. In early 2024, nearly 200 patents passed from NEC to IP Wave, and were subsequently assigned to Cloud Byte LLC. The assets involved in the latest NEC-IP Wave transaction are related to optical transmission.
