Ericsson reshuffles pack to capitalise on IPR

With a flurry of patent lawsuits dominating headlines in the industry, Ericsson has taken steps to place more emphasis on protecting its intellectual property. The vendor claims to have the industry’s strongest wireless IPR portfolio with 27,000 granted patents covering a range of technologies, such as wireless access and WLAN. It has already signed more than 90 license agreements with firms in the industry and as wireless access is now being added in new types of devices, Ericsson is reorganising its Licensing and Patent Development department with the aim of creating a larger revenue stream from its IPR. The vendor is aiming to increase IPR revenues above the SEK 4.6bn ($662m) net revenue generated in 2010. In addition, the company’s chief intellectual property officer, Kasim Alfalahi, will no longer report to Håkan Eriksson, CTO within the group function technology and portfolio management division, and will instead report directly to president and CEO Hans Vestberg. “The ICT industry is built on standardised and shared technologies, making it possible to create a global mass market for mobile telephony and mobile broadband. Today’s six billion mobile phone subscriptions, and close to one billion mobile broadband subscriptions, would not be possible without this industry mentality,” said Vestberg. “As we are entering the Networked Society, we will see built-in wireless access beyond traditional devices like phones, laptops and tablets, providing new services to the consumers. This provides an interesting business opportunity for us, having this industry’s strongest patent portfolio, as any company or manufacturer that wants to get in there will need an agreement with Ericsson.”