Nokia declares 2,000 5G SEP families
Nokia has declared 2,000 standard-essential patent (SEP) families for 5G technology since its first declaration in September last year.
The Finnish telecommunications company announced today, October 9, that it had declared its 2,000th 5G SEP family to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
The latest SEP family includes both a US and European patent (numbers US9,338,785B2 and EP2848055B1), and describes an “invention which provides network resources for smartphones, industrial devices and other equipment”.
Nokia’s 5G standard-essential technology has been developed by its Bell Labs division. The inventions claimed by the latest declaration were developed by scientists at Bell Labs in Aalborg, Denmark.
Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer at Nokia said: “The tradition of technologies invented by Nokia Bell Labs leading the world clearly continues in the 5G era.”
Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia technologies, added that other businesses and industries would be able to license the Finnish company’s technological contributions.
Standards race
ETSI is part of the 3GPP organisation, which sets global 5G standards. In addition to ETSI, it also includes other international standards bodies such as the China Communications Standards Association and the US-based Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions.
In July, a US congressman proposed a bill that would mandate the US government to “to enhance the representation and leadership of the US at international standards-setting bodies”.
Dominance of the 5G SEP sector has been fiercely contested to date. In particular, there has been concern from the US about the growing influence of Chinese telecoms company Huawei.
The US government has claimed that Huawei’s 5G technology poses a national security threat, due to fears it could be exploited to the benefit of Chinese military intelligence.
Last month, Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, offered to license the company’s 5G platform and infrastructure to “any American company” that wants to use it.
Ren told The New York Times that Huawei was “prepared to allow US companies to “modify our 5G technologies to meet their security requirements”.
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