In April last year, LG Electronics announced its withdrawal from the mobile business. Since then, many patent companies have attempted to purchase LG's telecommunication-related patents. Experts also predicted that LG Electronics' patents are likely to be sold because it is expensive to maintain. However, LG Electronics decided to retain the patent even if it withdrew its mobile business. This is because wireless communication technology is widely used not only in mobile, but also in smart home appliances and IOT-based products.
Why is LG Electronics' wireless communication patent attractive?
LG
Electronics is known to have over 24,000 standard patents related to LTE and
5G. LTE standard patents ranked first in the world for five years from 2012 to
2016, and the status of 5G standard patents was also ranked third in the world.
The industry is analyzing the market value of LG Electronics' 5G standard
patents to reach 1-2 trillion won. 5G standard patents are oligopolized by
several companies such as Huawei, Samsung Electronics, and Qualcomm, so their
value is set high as their scarcity is high.
LG's growing wireless communication technology patent
Recently,
LG Electronics has been winning the standard patent litigation, once again
being recognized for its technological prowess in the wireless communication
field. LG Electronics, which had filed a patent infringement suit against Wiko
in 2018 against Wiko, filed a lawsuit against Wiko in Germany after winning the
lawsuit. In the end, Wico's parent company, Tinno of China, signed a global
patent license agreement with LG Electronics. In addition, it won the LTE
standard patent litigation with China's TCL, leading to a decision to recall,
discard, and ban products that have already been sold.
LG Electronics goes beyond 5G to 6G,
LG
Electronics is continuously conducting R&D to secure the core source
technology of 6G. Following the establishment of the 'LG-KAIST 6G Research
Center' with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2019, in
early 21st, collaboration with Keysight Technologies Inc., a global wireless
communication test and measurement equipment manufacturer, was strengthened. In
August of this year, using the 6G THz (terahertz) band, it showed the result of
transmitting communication signals over 100m outdoors. It was also selected as
the chairperson of the 'Next G Alliance' hosted by the American
Telecommunications Industry Association (ATIS). It is expected to play a key
role, such as discussing 6G related prior art and suggesting service
directions.
The government is also busy with plans to lead the international standards for 6G technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT held a public-private joint 6G strategy meeting and established a R&D action plan. LG Electronics is also expected to be affected as the government aims to become the world's No. Attention is paid to whether LG Electronics can lead the wireless communication field in the 6G field as well.
