Internet of Things (IoT) Business & Technology & Patent Integrated Strategy

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com
Internet of Things (IoT)
Business & Technology& Patent
IntegratedStrategy
4Q 2015

©2015 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved www.techipm.com 2
1. IoT Business Reality ………………………………………………………………... 3
2. IoT Business Ecosystem …………………………………………………………... 9
3. IoT Innovation ………………………………………………………………………... 16
4. IoT Business Model ……………………………………………………….………... 22
5. IoT IP-Intensive Startup Strategy …............................……………………... 25
6. IoT Insights from Patents ………………………………………………………... 30
7. IoT Product Innovation Exploiting Patents …………….…………………... 48
8. IoT Patent Landscape…………………………………………….………………... 58
9. IoT Frontiers Insights from Patents …..…..…………….…………….……... 65
10. IoT Patent Strategy …………..…………………..……………….……………... 69
Contents

1. IoT Business Reality
Goldman Sachs defines IoT (Internet of Things) as the third wave of internet
revolution: by connecting to the internet billions of devices, IoT opens up a
host of new business opportunities and challenges.
According to McKinsey, IoT has the potential to create up to $6 trillion
economic value annually by 2025.
IoT has various applications including, smart home, connected car, smart grid,
smart healthcare, smart business and smart city.
Many players across diverse industries including semiconductor, consumer
electronics, IT, telecommunication, healthcare, retail, industrial & manufacturing
and transportation are participated in the IoT business.

1. IoT Business Reality -2
According to Research and Markets, there are more than 2000 companies
that are selling IoT enabled products, playing a vital part in the IoT
technology infrastructure, or act as an enabler to the IoT development.
A few major companies will not dominate the growth of the IoT market.
Rather, virtually all of business ecosystem players will involved in creating and
developing the IoT market.
The IoT business will be interdisciplinary across many industries.
The IoT business will have synergies by the convergence of many different
technologies or business attributes. The IoT business can create entirely new
industries providing dramatically different values to the customers.
Convergence

IoT Smart Home & Connected Car Convergence Insights from Patents
Patents are a good information resource for obtaining emerging IoT business
convergence insights. Followings is an example of the IoT patents that
provide insights of potential business convergence between the smart home
and connected car (for more patent examples, please consult the linked article).
US20120120930 (Vehicle network system interconnecting with a home
network; Hyundai Motor Company) illustrates a vehicle network system
interconnected with a home network that includes a vehicle information
collection unit and a wireless transceiver unit. The vehicle information
collection unit detects accident information or management information of
a vehicle and the wireless transceiver unit transmits information detected by
the vehicle information collection unit to the home network via a wireless
communication network and is configured to receive a response signal
from the home network.

IoT Smart Home & Connected Car Convergence Insights from Patents
The home network performs various functions such as providing an image of
the inside of a home or a residential area; monitoring and controlling water,
electricity, lighting and room temperature; inspecting a door; detecting an
arrival of a parcel or a guest; and collecting elevator information.
When a predetermined request signal is transmitted from the vehicle network
system to the home network, the home network is configured to perform an
operation corresponding to the request signal. The home network determines
whether the vehicle network system is detected within a predetermined range.
The home network may include a RFID system to detect the presence of the
vehicle network system. When the vehicle network system is detected within
the predetermined range, the home network transmits parking information
with respect to the vehicle equipped with the vehicle network.
The transmitted parking information can then be displayed on the display
unit in the vehicle.

IoT Patent Strategy

IoT Patent Strategy
The development of patents (drafting for new applications, creating value
through prosecution and strategic patent portfolio development) regarding the
IoT innovation should consider the IoT business reality.
Especially, the IoT patent development should support future development of
IoT businesses and commercial implementations of IoT innovations.
Additionally, the IoT patent development should support for both ecosystem
players’ exploitation and customers’ use of the IoT innovation.
To take care of the tasks of the IoT patent development in alignment with
the IoT business reality, the system approach to the IoT patent can be applied.
Then, the system as a whole and each system can be construed to support
future development of IoT businesses and commercial implementations of IoT
innovations. For details regarding the system approach to the IoT, please
consult the linked article .

2. IoT Business Ecosystem
A business ecosystem is the community of business entities that is formed by
the competitive and collaborative interactions among business entities for
new innovations. A business ecosystem evolves to form a new value network,
and thus, to create a new market.
The key building blocks of a business ecosystem are the platform providers
and value creators. A platform provider develops a platform, which is a
collection of core technologies/solutions with open interfaces for interaction
with the value creators. A value creator creates values by exploiting the
platform.
Recently, many global leaders in IoT business provide the IoT platforms to
create diverse platform-based business models and form the IoT business
ecosystem.

2. IoT Business Ecosystem -2
IoT Platform
According to Research and Markets, there are more than 260 companies that
are offering IoT platforms. Some of the IoT platforms are as follows.
Samsung Artic platform can help developers create new sensor-enabled
devices. Artic platform includes a family of processors and wireless
connectivity that can power and connect everything such as servers,
smartphones and wearables.
Apple HomeKit home automation platform can help developers create new
securely connected home automation devices in iOS. HomeKit enables users
to discover HomeKit accessories in their home and configure them, or create
actions to control the devices.
For more IoT platform examples, please consult the linked article.

IoT Platform
The number of competing IoT platforms is likely to increase for a certain
period of time, and then, merge into several dominant IoT platforms through
the IoT platform wars, which means the super-competition to form a cluster
with value creators at some market positions in the evolved IoT ecosystem.
The cluster of a platform will be complex because of participation of diverse
ecosystem players across several different industries. Following figure
illustrates the clustering of a platform with value creators across the smart
home and connected car industry.
Smart Home
Utility
Platform Platform
Connected Car
Lighting
Appliance
Environment
Security
Infortainment
Safty
Control
Automation
IoT Ecosystem

IoT Ecosystem Patent Strategy
The patent strategy for the IoT ecosystem should be in alignment with the
evolution of the IoT ecosystems initialed by the dynamic reconstruction of value
networks through the IoT platform wars. Most of all, the patent strategy for the
IoT ecosystem should support the essential features of the dominant design
IoT platforms for the IoT ecosystem: modularity, openness and scalability.
• Modularity allows various platform components of core technologies/solutions
compatible to the independently developed component technologies/solutions.
Thus, the patent strategy regarding patent portfolio development for the
component technologies/solutions should include the patent outsourcing through
patent acquisitions and M&A processes.

• Openness provides the flexible and transparent interaction interface for the
efficient and effective development of value-added applications by the value
creators. Thus, the patent strategy should cover the open licensing program.
Additionally, the patent strategy should provide the strong protections to the
ecosystem collaborators.
• Scalability is the application capability across several industries. Thus, the
patent strategy for the patent creation, portfolio development and exploitation
should take care of the relationship with the IoT ecosystem players across
different industries. This means that the strategic patent creation, portfolio
development and exploitation should consider not only the traditional Porter’s
competition strategy but also the ecosystem alliance strategy across different
industries.

Furthermore, the patent strategy should support the value creation by the
platform provider itself. Following is an example of the patent strategy that can
support the value creation by the platform provider itself by exploiting existing
patents.
HBS Professor Iansiti, the author of “The Keystone Advantage,” suggested
technological assimilation as a new engine for technological innovations
in his article “Creative Construction.” In the technological assimilation
frameworks, a core innovation that once provided stand-alone products
or services for a specific market can be the building blocks for mass market
generating innovations through assimilation to broader platforms that were not
existed at the time of innovations.

A good example may be the GPS technology providing LBS
(location based services) applications for smartphones and automobiles.
Another good example may be the DVR technology of TiVo that was
integrated into digital set-top box platforms.
By contrasting all possible value propositions from a IoT platform to the
potential value proposition(s) provided by the inventive departure(s)
(novelty point(s)) of the existing patent(s), the integration feasibility of
the existing patented technologies into the platform can be found,
and thus, the new integrated value propositions can be developed.

3. IoT Innovation
HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen coined the concept of the
“disruptive innovation.” Christensen explained the disruptive innovation in his
famous book “The Innovator’s Dilemma” as an innovation that disrupts an
existing market in ways that the market does not expect, and eventually create
a new market. PCs replaced the mainframe computers, 3.5 inch floppy disk
drive replaced 5.25 inch drive and digital cameras replaced film cameras are
some examples of the disruptive innovation.
Key features of the disruptive innovation that differentiate it from the traditional
(sustaining) innovation are as follows.

3. IoT Innovation -2
• The products/services provided by the disruptive innovation underperform
demanded by the current mainstream market. Thus, the incumbents in the
current market ignore the opportunities provided by the disruptive innovation.
The speed of performance improvement of the disruptive innovation is, however,
faster than that of the traditional innovation supporting the current market
demand. Thus, the products/services provided by the disruptive innovation can
serve the future market demand.
• The performance of the products/services provided by the disruptive
innovation does not need to surpass the performance of the products/services
provided by the traditional innovation. The products/services provided by the
disruptive innovation will create a new market by either offering comparable
performance or meeting the customer’s expectation at lower cost.

Interconnected IoT devices enable the development of the disruptive
products/services by meeting the customer’s expectation at lower cost.
For example, a prefabricated house with built-in IoT applications for the smart
home can provide the comparable quality of life at lower cost.
Interconnected IoT devices also can provide the disruptive products/services by
offering comparable performance.
For example, the telemedicine system equipped with interconnected low cost
medical devices can offer comparable performance of the traditional healthcare
system with high cost and high performance medical devices.

Patent Exploitation
One way of exploiting patents for the development of the disruptive IoT
products/services is to open patents owned by the incumbents to the business
ecosystem collaborators in diverse industries (the “Open IP Innovation”).
By letting the collaborators develop the disruptive IoT products/services
exploiting incumbents’ patents, the incumbents can keep focusing on the current
mainstream market in addition to effectively prepare the emerging market
created by the disruptive IoT innovation.
Samsung opened its 38,000 patents in various fields including telecom,
semiconductor and display to S. Korean SMEs and venture companies as the
part of the creative economy innovation center project. Total of 3,000 patents will
be provided for free. Samsung will send its patent experts to the center to help
exploiting its patents by the selected members of the center. Samsung will need
to extend the Open IP Innovation program to its global IoT ecosystem
collaborators for developing the disruptive IoT products/services.

Patent Exploitation
A practical method to exploit patents for the development of the disruptive IoT
products/services through the Open IP Innovation is to apply the new
product/service development methodology in the “Blue Ocean Strategy”
(the “Blue Ocean Patent Strategy”; for details, please consult the linked article).
The basic principle in the Blue Ocean Patent Strategy is to exploit patents to
achieve the value innovation by using the patented technologies to create a new
value curve, and thus, to provide new products/services.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Price
Amenities
Equipment
Instruction
Environment
Convenience Fun
B.O. R.O.
Tagline
Focus
Divergence

Patent Exploitation
Following figure illustrates the basic principle of the blue ocean patent strategy.

4. IoT Business Model
A business model is the way in which a company makes money through its
business. The key building blocks of a business model are the value proposition,
profit model, and business resource. The key building blocks of business models
for the IoT applications can be summarized as follows.
A. Business Resource
• IoT devices: Devices that can sense/recognize their surrounding
environments (including position/movement/identification) and communicate
with other devices
• Networks: Connecting/communicating medium/infrastructure that can
interconnect devices and connect devices to the internet
• IT systems: Back-end or embedded systems that can process information
(data) obtained by the IoT devices (e.g. cloud computing/big data analytics) and
provide the value added services exploiting the information

4. IoT Business Model -2
B. Value Proposition
• Automation: Providing various automation services for the customers’ job
to be done (e.g. order the out of stock product automatically; mobile payment;
self driving car)
• Care: Caring for customers (e.g. monitor customers’ body status and provide
various health care services; control customer’s home cooling and heating/
lighting system for energy savings)
• Business Intelligence: Providing better working tools/environments
(e.g. analyze customers’ shopping behavior for proactive promotion/
advertisement)
• Entertainment: Providing fun to customers (e.g. virtual reality games)

4. IoT Business Model -3
C. Profit Model
• Device/IT system sales with value added services
• Subscription fees
• After-market sales (e.g. part sales)
• Third-party sales (e.g. advertisement)
Combing the key building blocks, various business models for the IoT
applications can be developed.

5. IoT IP-Intensive Startup Strategy
Best Practice: Nest Labs
Company information
A smart home company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that
manufactures smart thermostats and smoke detectors. Founded in 2010
and acquired by Google for $3.2 billion in 2014.
IP value recognition in M&A
Build up 132 US issued patents (+ pending applications + international families)
in four years
Cf. SmartThings’ acquisition by Samsung for $200 million with no patent
*notice the value difference: $3.2 billion v. $200 million

5. IoT IP-Intensive Startup Strategy -2
Strategic development of patent portfolios
• Patent fortress for core business
Create 33 US issued utility patents and 28 US issued design patents regarding
smart thermostat
• Strategic patent acquisition
Acquired 69 US issued patents and one US patent applications regarding
smart sensors and sensor networks.
Strategic exploitation of patent portfolios
• Strategic financing
Utilize 29 US issued patents for patent secured lending from Wells Fargo Bank
*after Series A and B funding, before Series C funding
Strategic patent licensing
Licensed patents for accessing to Intellectual Ventures’ IP for defense

IoT Rising Star Insights from Patents
Patents can be a good measure regarding the state of the art of the IoT
innovation activity in a company. Thus, the IoT patenting activity can be a good
indicator for a company to be a leading role in the emerging IoT market.
Convida Wireless is a joint venture between InterDigital and Sony America
formed in 2013 for driving new IoT innovation in the field of machine-to-
machine (M2M) communications and other connectivity technologies.
Convida Wireless combines Sony's consumer electronics production expertise
with InterDigital's pioneering wireless research for IPR generation.
Convida Wireless applied 25 patents in the USPTO as of Aug. 2015.

IoT Rising Star Insights from Patents
Convida Wireless’ patent applications cover M2M/IoT systems that include
devices such as sensors, gateways to other networks and back-end servers.
Convida Wireless’ patents also cover M2M/IoT systems’ performances such
as devices management, data collection from the devices, data storage and
data processing and data querying from users or applications.
Recently, Convida Wireless is expanding its patenting activity in the direction
of high level IoT architecture.
For patents that illustrate some examples of Convida Wireless’ IoT innovation
activity, please consult the linked article.

IoT Innovative Startups Insights from Patents
Smart Home
Neura (http://www.theneura.com/) provides the intelligence IoT platform and
human-centered smart home application solutions. Neura patent application
US20150019714 illustrates the adaptable autonomous smart home system.
The adaptable autonomous smart home system can recognize the contextual or
semantic profiling of a person or place or devices (physical environment) based
on sensed data by the IoT devices. The adaptable autonomous smart home
system determines particular interpretation instructions (define particular IoT
device control rules) that are associated with the particular physical environment
and dynamically updates the control rules for changing physical environment.
For other IoT innovative startups, please consult the linked article).

6. IoT Insights from Patents
IoT Service
Patents are a good information resource for obtaining the IoT business ideas.
Followings is an example of the IoT patents that provide potential business
cases based on the IoT smart office building application.
For other examples of the IoT patents that provide the IoT services/applications
regarding smart utility meter, smart home/building temperature control,
smart transportation, connected car, smart manufacturing using 3D printer
and smart healthcare, please consult the linked article.
US20150230167 (Method and System for Providing Service Based on Space;
KAIST) illustrates a system for providing a service based on space.
An exemplary service/application scenario is as follows.

6. IoT Insights from Patents -2
IoT Service
User A being identified by an e-mail address of `aaa@abc.com` and User B
being identified by an e-mail address of `bbb@def.re.kr` wish to have a
meeting in a conference room of Building C on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.
User A may invite User B (by using the identifier `bbb@def.re.kr` of User B)
and may reserve Conference Room A313 of Building C through a Calendar
service by using the smart phone of User A. Here, Conference Room A313 of
building C may be identified by an e-mail address of `CA313@thingsgate.com`,
which corresponds to space matching identifier of the respective conference
room. And, by inviting the e-mail address `CA313@thingsgate.com` through
the Calendar service, Conference Room A313 may be reserved by User A.
At this point, management of IoT devices that are included in the space of
Conference Room A313 and management of the related services may be
carried out by a smart access point belonging to Conference Room A313.
In order to allow users to easily use Conference Room A313 in a cooperative
environment, such smart access point may be assigned with the
above-described e-mail address of `CA313@thingsgate.com`.

IoT Service
As User B arrives in front of Building C, as soon as a Wi-Fi signal of Building
C is received by the smart phone of User B, a welcoming message of an
access information service (or connection information service) of Building C
may be exposed to (or displayed on) the smart phone of User B. If User B
responds to such welcoming message, reservation information that has been
prearranged through the Calendar service may be notified to the smart phone
of User B.
User B may then move on to Conference Room A313 by being provided with
a Wi-Fi signal based location guidance through the smart phone of User B.
And, while User B is moving to Conference Room A313, automatic
authentication of all doors located along the path may be realized, thereby
allowing User B to pass through all doors in order to reach Conference Room
A313 without any separate ID tag.

IoT Service
Smart access points of each individual space may be connected to one
another through a smart access point service platform. Accordingly, once
User B is authenticated at the entrance of Building C, the corresponding
authentication information is shared by all smart access points through
the smart access point service platform, thereby reducing the complexity in
sequential authentication procedures of the smart access points, which are
connected to one another along the movement path of User B.
Furthermore, in providing services to User B, service information between
the smart access points being sequentially accessed by the smart phone of
User B may be shared through the smart access point service platform.

IoT Service
When User B enters Conference Room B, lights and lamps installed in the
conference room may be automatically turned on, and operation of a
ventilation system may be initiated. Thereafter, when User A enters
Conference Room A313, a projector may be turned on, blinders of the
conference room windows may be shut, and the lights may be turned off.
In addition to such automatic services of the IoT devices, the users may be
capable of controlling the specific space by using IoT applications existing
within the smart access points of the corresponding space.

IoT Technology: Connected Cars
Patents are a good information resource for obtaining the IoT technology
development status. Following patent illustrates current status of the IoT
connected car safety/collision avoidance technology development.
For other examples of patents that provide current status of the IoT
connected car technology development (safety/collision avoidance, traffic
information for smart driving, connected car security, infotainment and
self-driving car monitoring), please consult the linked article.
US 20150054659 (COOPERATIVE VEHICLE COLLISION WARNING SYSTEM;
Fujitsu) illustrates a vehicular communication systems enable vehicles to
wirelessly communicate with each other to exchange traffic information and
generate safety warnings depending on the traffic information exploiting
V2X (V2V and V2I) communication system.

IoT Technology: Connected Cars
The vehicular communication system includes a receiver and a transmitter.
The receiver may be configured to receive a message relating to traffic
conditions along a thoroughfare from a communication node.
The transmitter may be communicatively coupled to the receiver and may be
configured to rebroadcast the message within a predetermined amount of
time after receiving the message. The traffic information communication
system may be implemented in a vehicle traveling along the thoroughfare.

IoT Technology: Smart Healthcare
Following patent illustrates current status of the IoT smart health monitoring
devices technology development. For other examples of patents that provide
current status of the IoT healthcare/medical devices technology development
(smart health monitoring devices, smart haptic medical devices, patient
movement monitoring devices, healthcare robots and medical kiosk),
please consult the linked article.
US20150120317 (ADAPTIVE INTERFACE FOR CONTINUOUS MONITORING
DEVICES; DexCom) illustrates a glucose sensing device that is capable of
measuring the concentration of glucose. The glucose sensing device may be
implanted and provides a data that indicative of the concentration of glucose
in a host. The data stream may be raw data signal, which is converted into a
calibrated and/or filtered data stream used to provide a value of glucose to
a host, such as a user, a patient, or a caretaker.

IoT Technology: Smart Healthcare
The data is provided exploiting adaptive reporting process depending on
the behavioral and/or contextual status of the host. For example, if a user is
driving, it may be desirable to provide a concise report of information that
can be comprehended while operating a car. Similarly, if the user is at home
watching television, a more robust report may be desirable. Such variations
may affect patient behavior and impact utilization of the device and/or
outcomes from using the device. The behavioral and/or contextual status
of the host can be obtained from the sensed information from various IoT
devices and exploiting cloud based data processing.

IoT Technology: Samsung
Following patent illustrates current status of Samsung IoT smart home
lighting technology development. For other examples of patents that provide
current status of Samsung IoT technology development (energy harvesting
sensor device, smart lighting, smart appliance, smart TV and
Smart Healthcare), please consult the linked article.
US20150115834 (SMART HOME NETWORK APPARATUS AND CONTROL
METHOD THEREOF; Samsung) illustrates the network apparatus configured to
perform communication with at least one device. The apparatus also
includes a storage unit configured to store information for an illumination
device located within a preset distance range from a device.
The apparatus further includes a controller configured to control a
light-emitting state of the illumination device located within the preset
distance range from the device based on the information stored
in the storage unit when a preset event occurs in the device.

IoT Technology: Samsung
For example, when an event in which a door of a refrigerator is opened over
a preset time occurs or has remained open for longer than a present time
period, the controller may control the light-emitting state so that a
corresponding illumination device flicks at fast speed. When an event in
which power of the refrigerator turns off occurs, the controller may control
the light-emitting state so that the corresponding illumination device flickers
at low speed. Therefore, the user may identify whether a specific event
occurs in a device through a device related light-emitting pattern.

IoT Technology: Cisco
Following patent illustrates current status of Cisco IoT smart grid technology
development. For other examples of patents that provide current status of
Cisco IoT technology development (connected car/ITS (intelligent transportation
system), smart grid networks and wireless sensor networks),
please consult the linked article.
20150200846 (DATA RATE SELECTION WITH PROACTIVE ROUTING IN
SMART GRID NETWORKS; Cisco) illustrates a proactive routing in smart grids
networks. In proactive routing, connectivity is discovered and known prior to
computing routes to any destination in the network. Other devices in the
network can tell the less capable devices exactly where to send the packets,
and the less capable devices simply forward the packets as directed.

IoT Technology: Apple
Following patent illustrates current status of Apple IoT smart home technology
development. For other examples of patents that provide
current status of Apple IoT technology development, please consult the
linked article.
US20150072674 (Location-Based Device Automation; Apple) illustrates a
system for location-based device automation for some smart home
applications. Smart home IoT devices (e.g., lights and appliances) associated
with a particular geographic location (e.g., room, office, building) can be
automated based on a geographic location of mobile devices. Automation of
a device can include activating or deactivating the device, or adjusting the
settings of the device.

IoT Technology : Apple
For example, home lighting can be configured to activate or deactivate
depending on a day and time. Automation modes (e.g., a home mode, an
away mode, or a vacation mode) can be used to adjust automation settings
for the devices. A particular automation mode can be selected to automate
(e.g., adjust the settings) the devices using the configured automation
settings for the particular automation mode. An automation setting can
indicate a particular setting for the particular device (e.g., a thermostat
setting, a volume level, or a light dimming setting). Automation modes can
be personalized using the user profiles associated with the mobile device
at the specific geographic location to provide the personalized entertainment.

IoT Technology: Big Data
IoT big data analytics is becoming important to process unimaginably large
amounts of information and data that are obtained by the sensor embedded
interconnected IoT devices. The typical IoT big data analytics is Hadoop,
an open-source software framework that supports data-intensive distributed
applications, and the running of applications on large clusters of commodity
hardware. Hadoop, that is based on the architectural framework MapReduce,
collects both structured data and unstructured data, processes the collected
data set in a distributed network cluster in parallel, and extracts valuable
information from the processed data set within a short time.
Followings illustrate an example of patents that provide current status of the
IoT big data analytics technology development.
For other examples of patents that provide current status of IoT big data analytics
technology development, please consult the linked article.

IoT Technology: Big Data
US20140297826 (SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BIG DATA AGGREGATION IN
SENSOR NETWORK; ETRI) illustrates a system for big data aggregation in a
sensor network. The most important part of the IoT big data analytics is collecting
data before storing the data, and many data collection tools based on Hadoop
supports collecting data in Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). HDFS is an
open source for storing big data dispersedly, that is, a technology for storing
collected data reliably. The big data aggregation system includes a sensor
network which comprises many sensor nodes connected to each other over a
wired/wireless network and is configured to transfer sensor data generated by
each of sensor nodes to a big data management unit by setting a destination
address in the sensor data as an address of a big data management unit.
The big data management unit configured to distribute and dispersedly store the
sensor data based on the set destination address of the sensor data.

IoT Technology: 5G
5G (the fifth generation mobile communications) is scheduled to launch in
around early 2020s. Even if it is not determined yet regarding the standard
technology details, many researchers expect that 5G will transfer 1000 times
more data, and thus, can connect billions of IoT (Internet of Things) devices
at the same time. Key candidate technologies that enable 5G to support IoT
devices connection are millimeter wave communication, massive MIMO
(multiple input and multiple output) technology, cloud RAN/network function
virtualization (NFV)/ software defined network (SDN), ultra dense network
(UDN) and low latency network.
For patents illustrate some examples of the current key technology
developments of 5G for IoT, please consult the linked article.

IoT Technology: FinTech
FinTech (Financial Technology) refers to exploiting technologies (e.g. mobile
devices, internet/web technologies) for providing innovative financial services.
Some examples of FinTech are money transfer/digital currency, payments/
billing system and P2P lending/cloud funding system. The service
developments of FinTech can be protected by either software
patents or business method patents.
The internet connected IoT devices combined with FinTech can provide
diverse value added financial services. Some examples are secured smart
transactions, smart POS systems and personalized banking service.
For patents illustrate some examples of the technology/service
developments of IoT/FinTech, please consult the linked article.

7. IoT Product Innovation Exploiting Patents
• Patent information provides many valuable insights that can be exploited
for developing new innovative IoT products. Most of all, patents can provide
insights regarding the state of the art of IoT innovation for a specific
technology/application field (e.g., Healthcare/Medical Devices, Connected Cars,
Big Data Analytics, Security, Cloud, Smart City) and a company
(e.g., Apple, Samsung, Cisco, IBM, Qualcomm).
• From the “AS IS” analysis based on the insights regarding the state of
the art of IoT innovation, one can develop the “TO BE” strategy for the future
technologies of new IoT products (e.g., technology roadmap in alignment with
new product development goals) for a specific technology/application field
and in consideration of competitors’ product innovation direction.

7. IoT Product Innovation Exploiting Patents -2
• Patents can provide insights regarding technical details of IoT innovation
(e.g., Smart UI/UX, Autonomous Vehicles). Thus, patent information combined
with future technology development roadmap can provide insight regarding
the future implementation of a specific IoT technology.
• Patents can provide insights regarding the comparative innovation strategy
in alignment with the strategic move of a specific company for the IoT
business leadership through the cross-competitor analysis.
• For example, to compare the innovation strategy of the three leading
companies in the IoT Smart Home applications, Apple, Google and Samsung,
patent information is exploited for the cross-competitor analysis. To obtain the
strategic parameters of the cross-competitor analysis for the IoT Smart Home
exploiting patents, a system approach to the IoT patents is adopted.

• The analysis shows Google’s select and focus strategy for providing the
care value proposition. The analysis also show that Apple is most active in the
innovation of automation value proposition compare to Samsung and Google,
even if Apple’s number of patent applications is smaller than that of Google
and Samsung.
• Patents can provide insights regarding
a new company to become play a leading role in the emerging IoT market.
Thus, patent information can be exploited for the product differentiation
strategy.

• Patents can be exploited to identify new IoT product development
opportunity from scenarios analysis. The scenarios analysis can show potential
interactions between the future user and the IoT product via the specific
usage of the product and behavior of the user under environments provided
by the product functionality.
• The scenarios analysis exploiting patent information can provide the new
IoT product concept (e.g., specific benefits to the user, product design, product
functionality and the technology for the product).
• Patents can be exploited to develop the disruptive IoT products by providing
IoT products with new performance/value proposition attributes that may not
previously have been valued by existing end users
(e.g., convergence with other technologies to create synergies).

IoT Smart Home Scenarios for New Product Development Exploiting Patents
• The first step in the scenario development is to do patent search and
review for the state of the art of IoT innovation for smart home applications.
The searched patents that are related to the smart home applications should
be analyzed to find the measurable user benefits provided by the value
propositions (automation, energy management, care, safety, entertainment)
and method/device/system to offer the value propositions.
• Then, develop a story of the future implementations of the state of the art
of IoT innovation for smart home applications exploiting 5W1H –
Who, When, Where, What, Why, How.

• The stakeholders (users) in the scenario for the IoT smart home are usually
the member of home who can be specified by age, gender, profession.
The time can be the morning, afternoon, evening.
The place can be the bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen and outside.
• Then, describe how the specific product (including system) that is
implemented based on the patent disclosures performs (interacts with a user)
to provide each value proposition under the circumstances for a specific
purpose (expectations of the product’s future user or solutions for product’s
future user’s problems). Base on the developed scenarios, potential
improvements over the implemented product can be devised by listing new
product features, functionality, UI/UX, integration method etc.

• Followings summarize the key elements of the IoT smart home scenarios
for each value proposition.
• Home Automation
The smart home product should determine how to solve user’s problem or
perform for a specific situation without constant guidance from the user.
The smart home product should adapt to changing situation/environment.
The smart home product should react properly to the changing
situation/environment in accordance with the performance objectives.
The smart home product should join the home networks without user’s
manual configuration.

• Home Energy Management
The smart home product should adapt the overall energy efficiency of the
home to the comfort and quality of life.
The smart home product should control the home heating for reducing
energy consumption while ensuring comfort.
The smart home product should control lighting based on user’s presence
and environment.
• Home Care
The smart home product should proactively act for caring the user under
the environment/situation on behalf of the user.
The smart home product should provide UI/UX depend on the user context.

• Home Safety
The smart home product should provide private space protection and
control against hazard home environment.
The smart home product should measure of gas, carbon monoxide, fire,
smoke, water and weather conditions.
The smart home product should provide remote access to home
environment.
• Home Entertainment
The smart home product should provide personalize entertainment to
the user.
The smart home product should exploit semantic information regarding
the home entertainment devices.

7. IoT Product Innovation Exploiting Patents -
10 IoT Killer Applications Design Rules Insights from Patents
• Rule 1: Interoperable Networking of the IoT Devices
• Rule 2: Best IoT Sensor Selection for Collecting Characteristic
Information of the Environment
• Rule 3: Semantic Reasoning of the Data from the IoT Devices
• Rule 4: Collective Interaction of the IoT Devices
• Rule 5: Best UI Selection for Users
• Rule 6: Adaptable Autonomous System for Users
• Rule 7: Maximum Exploitation of Back-End Systems
(Cloud, Big Data Analytics)
• Rule 8: Security Architectures for Maximum Security Measures
• Rule 9: Exploration of Cross-Industry Applications
• Rule 10: User Experiences (UXs) for Maximum User Satisfaction
For details, please consult the linked article.

8. IoT Patent Landscape
Smart Home
Many high tech business leaders are now competing in the IoT smart home
market by providing innovative products/services such as Samsung SmartThings
and Apple HomeKit. Patent information can provide insights regarding the state
of the art of the IoT innovations for smart home applications (home automation,
energy/utility management, home security, lighting system).
To find the leading innovators in the IoT smart home applications, more than
1000 published patent applications and issued patents in the USPTO as of
Oct. 30, 2015 that are related to the smart home applications are reviewed.
More than 400 patent applications are selected as the key patents for the IoT
smart home applications. In number of patent applications, Google (including
Nest Lab) is the leader followed by Samsung Electronics, General Electric,
LG Electronics, Allure Energy and Honeywell.

8. IoT Patent Landscape -2
Smart Home

Connected Cars
Patent information can provide insights regarding the state of the art of the
connected cars innovations. To find the leading innovators in the connected cars,
more than 1000 published patent applications and issued patents in the
USPTO as of Oct. 30, 2015 that are related to the connected cars are reviewed.
More than 600 patent applications are selected as the key patents for the
connected cars. In number of patent applications, Nissan is the leader followed b
AutoConnect Holdings, Toyota, Ford, GM, Omega Patents, American Vehicular
Sciences and Honda.

Connected Cars

IoT Platform Connectivity
To find the leading innovators in the IoT platform connectivity, more than 5000
issued patents in the USPTO as of 3Q 2015 that are related to the IoT platform
connectivity (LTE, WLAN, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy) are
reviewed. More than 2800 patents are selected as the key patents for the IoT
platform connectivity. In number of patents, Samsung Electronics is the leader
followed by Qualcomm, LG Electronics, Google, Intel, Nokia, Ericsson,
InterDigital, Apple, BlackBerry, Texas Instruments, Marvell, Avago Technologies
(Broadcom), Sony and Panasonic.

IoT Platform Connectivity

IoT Connected Healthcare Patent Landscape & Disputes Risk Assessment:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-connected-healthcare-patent-landscape-
disputes-alex-g-?published=t
Personal Health/Fitness Care Devices Patent Landscape:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/personal-healthfitness-care-devices-patent-
landscape-alex-g-?published=u
IoT M2M Connectivity Insights from Patents:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-m2m-connectivity-insights-from-
patents-lee-ph-d-j-d-clp?published=t
Health Monitoring Biomedical Sensing Devices Insights from Patents:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/health-monitoring-biomedical-sensing-devices-
insights-alex-g-?published=t

9. IoT Frontiers Insights from Patents
IoT SaaS
Cloud based software as a service (SaaS) enables cost effective value added
services for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as smart home,
connected healthcare and preventive maintenance of industrial equipment.
Samsung patent application US20130227569 illustrates the system that can
gather data from thousands of the IoT sensors/devices and analyze the data
without the massive amount of investment in the server and big data analytics
infrastructure.
Oracle patent application US20150227118 illustrates the cloud based IoT SaaS
system for facilitating automatic control of the smart home devices based on
past device behavior, current device events, sensor data, and/or server-sourced
data.

9. IoT Frontiers Insights from Patents -2
Self-aware Self-healing IoT
Billions of interconnected devices that are connected to the internet should be
self-aware and self-healing: Self-Aware Self-Healing Internet of Things (IoT) is
concerned with systems that can auto-detect, analyze, and fix any issue with
the IoT devices and networks without human intervention.
Deployment of significant numbers of lighting devices with associated controllers
and/or sensors and networking in smart cities presents increasing challenges for
set-up and management of the system elements and network communication
elements of the lighting system.
US20150250042 illustrates the system of networked intelligent lighting devices
that provides autonomous discovery and set-up at installation. The system also
can provide autonomous detection of failure and fix of the failure.

Deep Learning
Deep learning is a machine learning method that attempts to learn layered
models of inputs that mimics the human brain’s reasoning process. The layers
correspond to distinct levels of concepts where higher-level concepts are derived
from lower-level concepts (hierarchy of complex concepts that are constructed
out of simpler concepts).
US20150294422 illustrates the deep learning application for dynamic risk
management in the IoT connected cars. The deep learning correlates the
driver's usage patterns, driving styles, weather conditions, traffic or interaction
with the vehicle based on a priori knowledge of how normalized driver data sets
behave to predict potential driving risk dynamically. Real time data are provided
using the vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)
communications.

Robots for Smart Home
Have you ever dreamed about future that your favorite food is ready
automatically when you feel hungry? US20150290795 indicates a possibility by
combing robotics and artificial intelligence. US20150290795 illustrates the
computerized robotic food preparation system for food preparation by digitizing
the food preparation process of professional and non-professional chef dishes
and subsequently replicating a chef's cooking movements, processes and
techniques with real-time electronic adjustments.
US20140207282 illustrates a household robot that can take care of your home.
The household robot can monitor the state of a home, clean the home and turn
on/off various appliances for you automatically and transmit the surveillance
data to you in an emergency condition detected by the robot. As illustrated in
US20150224640 the household robot even can take care of your health.

10. IoT Patent Strategy
Preparation & Prosecution Strategy
Prior Arts Search
Even if the internet of things (IoT) gets a huge attention recently, the concept of
interconnected devices and connecting billions of devices to the internet in the
IoT is not new and has been researched for over 10 years. Thus, a large number
of non-patent prior arts including research papers and books can be existed.
Therefore, the intensive search of non-patent prior arts is needed for preparing
the IoT patent.
US20150019710 illustrates a good example case that intensive search of
non-patent prior arts is required. US20150019710 claims a method of
maintaining interoperability amongst IoT devices connected via an IoT
integration platform. The key elements of the claim 1 at issue are the
interoperable control rule based on the semantic label associated with a
user's IoT device.

10. IoT Patent Strategy -2
Prior Arts Search -2
The USPTO rejected the claim 1 under the AIA 102(b) as being anticipated by
a non-patent prior art regarding the semantic interoperability on the web.
Semantic interoperability enables exchange of data among different web system.
The inventor argued that the semantic label in the non-patent prior associated
with a user's IoT device and amended claim to clarify the distinguished aspects
of the claim form the prior art. However, the USPTO rejected the claim again in
the final rejection based on newly founded non-patent prior art that explicitly
mentions the IoT device in the disclosure.

Claim Drafting for Maximum Quality & Value
When the IoT patent claims are drafted, several factors that can make the patent
high quality and value should be considered. The factors are (1) claim scope
and broadness, (2) value propositions of a claim’s novelty point (non-obvious
inventive departure from the prior arts), (3) claim mix (degree to which different
kind of statutory claim types (e.g. apparatus, process, manufactures,
composition) are used in a patent), (4) claim diversity (degree to which different
kind of claim formats (e.g. means-plus-function claim), terminology, arrangement
in a given statutory claim type (e.g. number or order of claim elements) are used
In a patent) and (5) claim setting (degree to which different kind of commercially
significant settings (e.g. component/system or transmitter/receiver) are used in
a patent).

Claim Drafting for Maximum Quality & Value -2
The features to be considered in the claim drafting to get the high quality and
value patents with the optimal quality to cost (efforts and time in addition to
monetary cost) ratio can be decided exploiting the insights for products/services
that is going to be covered by the patent (e.g. attributes of a product/service that
valued most by customers), the patent landscape to figure out the competitors’
patents (e.g. whether design around is required to avoid infringing competitors’
patents) and internal patenting process (including available patent budget).
For example, if a patent is going to use for excluding the competitors, the key
features to be considered in the claim drafting will be the claim diversity (to avoid
potential infringement loophole) and claim mix (to provide protection against
invalidation).

Claim Drafting for Maximum Quality & Value -3
The best practice in the IoT patent claims drafting is the Qualcomm patents
for the IoT connectivity. Total of 273 patents issued in the USPTO for the IoT
connectivity are reviewed. Following table summarizes the assessment.

Claim Drafting & Amendment under Post-Alice 101 Eligibility Test
The basic building blocks of the IoT are devices that can sense/recognize their
surrounding environments and communicate with other devices, connecting/
communicating network medium/infrastructure that can interconnect devices and
connect devices to the internet, back-end IT systems that can process
information (data) obtained by the IoT devices (e.g. cloud computing/big data
analytics) and provide the value added services exploiting the information.
Therefore, a part or whole of data aggregation, data transfer, data correlation,
data analysis and services based on the data are the essential elements of the
IoT inventions, and thus, the elements of the IoT patent claims. Consequently,
many of IoT patents can be identified as abstract ideas because they are the
certain methods of organizing human activities/mental process or fundamental
economic practices or mathematical relationships/formulas unless the IoT patent
claims are drafted carefully to pass the post-Alice 101 patent eligibility test.

Claim Drafting & Amendment under Post-Alice 101 Eligibility Test -2
For example, claim 1 in US20140012945 claimed: A method of automatically
detecting issues and facilitating the transmission of alert messages in a home
network consisting of a plurality of consumer electronic devices coupled to a
service node, the method comprising: storing information regarding home
entities in an inventory database, the entities comprising the household,
one or more users within the household, devices in the household, applications
running on the devices, and a community of which the household is included;
defining usage classes for each entity, the usage classes denoting a primary
function associated with an entity, and comprising networking, productivity,
and entertainment; assigning an index value to each usage class for each
entity, the index value comprising an integer value within a fixed range, and
reflecting a relative level of satisfaction associated with the entity for each
respective usage class; monitoring data regarding usage trends, performance
characteristics, and external variables associated with the entities;

modifying one or more of the index values based on the monitored data; and
facilitating the transmission of messages regarding services or products related
to the entities of the home from one or more parties, wherein the messages are
conformed to index values.
This claim was rejected under 101 by the USPTO because the claim is directed
towards the abstract idea: storing data regarding entities, classifying entities,
assigning index values, monitoring usage data, modifying the index values and
transmitting messages regarding services or products related to the entities
based on index values. Thus, simply transferring the data through the networks
or processed the data for providing services will not sufficient to transform the
nature of the claimed invention into a patent-eligible claim. Additional elements
that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea are
needed.

Potential claim elements that can overcome the reject may be the claim
elements that embed/link to a specific machine/article (not a generic purpose
computer) (e.g. medical device, thermostat, application specific
microprocessor/controller) or that either recite a specific series of steps that
resulted in a departure from a human activity or transform a particular thing to
a different thing or improve the technology.

Patent Disclosure Drafting & Prosecution in Alignment with Business
Strategy
The IoT patents should support future development of the IoT businesses and
commercial implementations of the IoT innovations. The disclosures of the IoT
patent can be considered as a system that is consist of the basic building blocks
of the IoT as a subsystem: (1) devices that can sense/recognize their
surrounding environments and communicate with other devices, (2) connecting
/communicating network medium/infrastructure that can interconnect devices and
connect devices to the internet, (3) back-end IT systems that can process
information (data) obtained by the IoT devices (e.g. cloud computing/big data
analytics) and (4) provide the value added services exploiting the information.
Then, the system as a whole and each basic building block as a subsystem can
be construed in the disclosures to support future development of IoT businesses
and commercial implementations of the IoT innovations.

Strategic Patent development
Best Practices Case Study
IoT Smart Home Strategic Patent Development Best Practice:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/internet-things-iot-strategic-patent-development-
best-alex-g-?published=t
IoT Connected Cars Strategic Patent Development Best Practice:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-connected-car-patent-development-best-
practice-alex-g-?published=t
IoT Connected Healthcare Strategic Patent Development Best Practice:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-connected-healthcare-strategic-patent-
development-alex-g-?published=t

Patent Disputes Risk Assessment
As the smartphone market matured, many companies are looking for the post-
smartphone market that can generate new revenues. Many market researchers
expect that the interconnected IoT (Internet of Things) devices will create a new
market that will result in more than $1 trillion in value added to the global
economy within 10 years. In the short term, wearable computing devices are
expected to form an early IoT market by interconnecting body-sensing devices
and providing useful personal services including healthcare.
As we have seen in the smartphone market development, it is expected that the
super-competition to preoccupy the leadership in the lucrative IoT market can
lead to another round of patent wars. The post-smartphone patent wars,
however, will be more extensive because of more extensive participation of
players across several different industries. The post-smartphone patent wars will
also be more complex because of the recent rapid change in legal environment
and the learning curve from the smartphone patent wars.

To assess the potential patent disputes risk of the IoT, patent landscapes of
three major IoT applications – smart home, connected cars, smart healthcare
(including healthcare/fitness wearable devices) – and IoT platform connectivity
are researched. Followings summarize the potential patent disputes risk for
each subfield of the IoT.

Smart Home
One interesting point in the smart home patent land scape is a large number of
patents owned by two startups - Allure Energy (9 %) and Ecofactor (5 %) - that
are not successful in the IoT smart home market compare to their marker leader
competitors such as Nest Lab and Ecobee.
A large number of patents owned by commercially unsuccessful companies
can be the potential patent disputes risk to the smart home companies.

Smart Home -2
Allure Energy is a smart home energy management company based in Austin,
Texas. Allure Energy develops leading-edge smart energy management solutions
for many IoT applications. Allure Energy has developed 22 US family patents for
the smart energy management up to now. Significant number of forward citations
shows the high quality of the family patents. Especially, many patents of most key
industry players including Google (Nest Lab), GE and Honeywell in the smart
energy management heavily cited Allure Energy patents. A huge number of
claims of the family patents make it very difficult to invalidate the family patents
through PTAB IPR process. Allure Energy already sued Honeywell in Texas
Western District Court (Case No. 1:15-cv-00079; January 29, 2015) and
Nest Lab in Texas Eastern District Court (Case No. 9:13-cv-00102; May 14,
2013).

Connected Cars
One interesting point of the connected cars patent landscape is the large number
of patents owned by two active patent monetizing entities - Omega Patents and
American Vehicular Sciences and a suspected entity - AutoConnect Holdings.
The large number of patents owned by the patent monetizing entities is a
potential patent disputes risk for the connected cars industry.
Omega Patents and American Vehicular Sciences have involved in 15 and 52
patent litigations respectively. American Vehicular Sciences is a subsidiary of
Acacia Research. Flextronics AP LLC, which is a strategic patent development
subsidiary of a connected vehicle platform solution company Flextronics
International, transferred the ownership of patents to AutoConnect Holdings.

For the patent disputes risk assessment of the Smart Connected Healthcare
and IoT Platform Connectivity, please consult the linked article.

IoT Smart Home Innovation R&D White Space
Many high tech business leaders are now competing in the IoT (Internet of
Things) smart home market by providing innovative products/services such as
Samsung SmartThings and Apple HomeKit. Patent information can provide
insights regarding the state of the art of the IoT innovations for smart home
applications such as home automation, energy/utility management, home
security, lighting system and safety monitoring (e.g., hazard detecting, elderly
care). Thus, one can identify the potential further innovation R&D areas
(“white space”) that can lead to new products/services development through
the patent analysis.

IoT Smart Home Innovation R&D White Space -2
To find the white spaces in the IoT smart home applications, more than 1000
published patent applications and issued patents in the USPTO as of November
10, 2015 that are related to the smart home applications are reviewed.
More 400 patent applications are selected as the key patents for the IoT smart
home applications. In number of patent applications, Google (including Nest Lab)
and Samsung Electronics dominate the patent applications (nearly 30% of the
total patent applications among more than 70 patent owners).
Samsung Electronics patent application is highly focused on the home
automation. Google patent application is focused on the home automation
energy/utility management and safety monitoring.

Following figure shows the patent landscape of the IoT smart home applications.
As can be seen in the figure, the home automation is clouded by significant
number of patent applications owned by many market leaders such as
Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and General Electric.
The energy/utility management is also clouded by a large number of patent
applications owned by several key market leaders such as Google and
Honeywell.

In-depth analysis of each patent reviles that most of the patent applications are
for the incremental innovations of the current market products/services.
13% of the total patent applications are for the innovations of the potential
new market products/services: Adaptable Autonomous Smart Home System
(The adaptable autonomous smart home system can recognize the contextual
or semantic profiling of a person or place or devices (physical environment)
based on sensed data by the IoT devices. The adaptable autonomous smart
home system determines particular interpretation instructions (define particular
IoT device control rules) that are associated with the particular physical
environment and dynamically updates the control rules for changing physical
environment); Self-Aware Self-Healing Smart Home System;
Artificial Intelligence including Deep Learning Applications;
Cloud/Big Data/SaaS; Robots; New UX for Smart Home System;
Cross-industry Convergence; and Emotion-Aware Smart Home System.

IoT Strategic Patent R&D
Strategic Patent Portfolio Development Exploiting Existing Patents
Well tailored value creation methodology combined with patent prosecution
strategy can develop new patent portfolios for maximum ROI from existing
patents. Many patent applications and newly issued patents can be further
developed for creating new values by amending and creating claims and
generating family patents to encompass emerging technology and products/
services trends, market demands, and strategic exploitation goals
(e.g., cross-licensing, monetization etc.).

IoT Strategic Patent R&D -2
Goldman Sachs defines IoT (internet of things) as the third wave of internet
revolution: by connecting to the internet billions of devices, IoT opens up a host
of new business opportunities and challenges. Even if IoT gets a huge attention
recently, the concept of interconnected devices and connecting billions of
devices to the internet in the IoT is not new and has been researched for over
10 years. Thus, there may be a large number of patents (that were not intended
for specific IoT application at the time of invention) that can be exploited for
developing new IoT patents supporting current and future IoT business goals.

New Patent Development Opportunity Case Study
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) is the North American arm
of the corporate R&D organization of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
MERL conducts application motivated basic research and advanced
development. Total of 168 MERL patents filed within 3 years are reviewed for
finding new IoT patents development opportunities.
Many patent applications in the field of Wireless & Optical Communications
(IoT Connectivity), Power Distribution System (Smart Grids), Vehicle Control/
Information System (Connected Cars), Electronic Devices (IoT Sensors) and
Building Automation (Smart Home) are found to be the good candidates for
new IoT patents development.

Strategic Patent Development for New Products/Services
One can identify new patent R&D areas (“white space”) that can lead to new
products/services development through the patent landscape analysis. Specific
patent R&D subject matters that can cover the new IoT products/services further
can be found from scenarios analysis. The scenarios analysis can show potential
interactions between the potential users and the new IoT products/services via
the specific usage of the products/services and behavior of the user under
environments provided by the products functionality/services offerings.
Thus, the scenarios analysis can provide the specific patent R&D subject
matters that cover the new IoT products/services concepts (e.g., specific
benefits to the user, products/services design, and the technology for the
products/services).

New Patent Development Opportunity Case Study
Philip Morris International is an American global cigarette and tobacco company.
Philip Morris International wanted to develop new electronic cigarettes that can
reduce the disease and death caused by tobacco significantly. Patent landscape
analysis regarding the electronic cigarettes reviled that it is hard to find white
space in the traditional electronic cigarette R&D areas. Specific patent R&D
subject matters that can cover the new electronic cigarettes were found based
on the scenarios analysis: Smart electronic cigarettes exploiting the IoT
applications.

IoT Patent Monetization New Business Model
Even if the IoT gets a huge attention recently, the concept of interconnected
devices and connecting billions of devices to the internet in the IoT is not new
and has been researched for over 10 years. Thus, there may be a large number
of patents (that were not intended for specific IoT application at the time of
invention) that can be exploited for developing new IoT business by forming the
strategically packaged patent portfolio for providing the new IoT value
propositions.
The strategically packaged patent portfolio is the collection of the existing
patents that can be exploited for developing new products/services (and thus,
new business) by integrating the value propositions of each patent of the
portfolio. The strategically packaged patent portfolio can be used for
monetization through patent sale, patent licensing, commercialization,
spin-off, patent banking, and financing.

References
Collection of IoT Articles:
https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/2853055

Thank you!
If you have any questions
please contact Alex G. Lee
at alexglee@techipm.com
Techipm IoT Strategy Consulting Service Link

Internet of Things (IoT) Business & Technology & Patent Integrated Strategy

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