Co-evolution of markets for technology and markets for products in mobile telecommunication standards: Examination of essential patents for GSM, WCDMA, and LTE standards

Abstract

Patents conforming to technology standards ('essential patents') in a rapidly-changing and technology-intensive industry such as mobile telecommunication industry have strategic values to the holder of the patent. Firms who play in such an industry, either manufacturers, parts suppliers, or non-practicing entities, thus fiercely compete against each other to develop standards-conformant technologies. In mobile telecommunication industry, complex dynamics among firms (that stems from the different positions of each firm in the market for products and for technology) has formed interesting emerging patterns. In the paper, we examine the evolutionary pattern of the relationship between the position of a firm in product markets and its position in technology markets as the dominant design shifts from one to the next. In particular, we analyze essential patents conformant to different generations of mobile telecom standards (i.e. GSM, WCDMA, and LTE) from 2 different perspectives: 1) the product market position of the patent holder; and 2) the impacts of experience in product market and technology development on the position in the technology market for the subsequent standards. We discuss the emerging patterns of players in relation to their positions in both product markets and technologies.