Amplified & GreyB update 5G essentiality report

Having released a 5G SEP essentiality report in May 2020, Amplified and GreyB have updated it to add over 6,000 patent families, bringing the total considered to over 18k.

Essentiality of declared SEPs is a hot topic, and there is no doubt that reports like this are of interest to the wider industry as, not unlike determining FRAND licensing terms, the more data points one has the better one's ultimate estimate can be. In some ways the report speaks for itself (and it isn't long), but some key points I found interesting:

• The overall share of the 'big 6' entities has decreased by just under 10% since May 2020, revealing a greater role for smaller entities in the 5G SEP space;
• Huawei, LG, Nokia and Samsung have similar numbers of granted declared SEPs, but Huawei has many more in the pipeline;
• In the view of the report, just over 25% of the declared SEPs are 'core' to 5G, with Huawei leading the pack in terms of the number of granted core SEPs at 18.3% (followed by Nokia 14.6% then Samsung 12.9%); and
• Ericsson and Qualcomm appear to be lagging behind in the numbers game (of course, numbers aren't indicative of quality).

The report may be found here.