Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : March/April 2004

Highlight: Derwent World Patents Index on Dialog with Derwent Analytics^SM

Using Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) on Dialog with Derwent Analytics powered by VantagePoint can aid you in extracting business-critical insights for your marketplace. Whether it is tracking your competitors' latest moves, understanding general technology trends or summarizing your own company's patenting activity, the combination of Derwent Analytics and Derwent World Patents Index on Dialog can help you find meaningful results quickly.

A case study on wireless-fidelity networking (Wi-Fi) illustrates the power of using Derwent WPI on Dialog to explore the patent activity for this technology combined with Derwent Analytics to analyze and illustrate the data retrieved.

Case Study

Ever since its inception, wireless networking has always had one major weakness—keeping signals contained inside the building secure. Initially many corporate and personal networks had no encryption or means of network protection. This lack enabled hackers to gain access and compromise systems from locations outside of the secure building and by-pass Internet firewalls.

View Figure 1: Wi-Fi Patenting Volumes

The number of patents being filed in this area has increased dramatically since the early 1990s (see Figure 1). Patents can be an invaluable resource in tracking technology progress, especially in emerging areas. Derwent World Patents Index can be searched on Dialog and the yielded results imported into Derwent Analytics, which is powered by VantagePoint, the data-mining package for quick information dissemination. Bibliographic fields, as well as the Thomson Derwent enhanced fields, can be tabulated or summarized graphically in order to understand complex datasets efficiently.

View Figure 2: Top 10 Assignees

Figure 2 illustrates that major organizations in the field comprise leading mobile telecommunications and computer companies.

April 2002 saw Ericsson invest $8 million into a company called RadioFrame Networksæa company that supplies WLAN hardware capable of integrating with multi-protocol networks. Lucent announced in September of the same year that it had successfully handed off a 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Internet session over to a secure WLAN connection with no loss of connection. It seems that the major contenders are all striving to integrate Wi-Fi into the existing infrastructure of corporate networks and allow seamless working between different network types. This will ultimately allow employees to work or remain in communication wherever they may be.

View Figure 3: Technology Breakdown

Figure 3 illustrates how the technology has developed during the ten-year study period. Critical early infrastructure developments in local area networking and radio-link networking are highlighted in the period between 1994-1996, indicating existing protocols, transmission, and networking methods needing modification to cope with the new technology. One piece of hardware, in particular, dominated this area of patent activity – the Wireless Access Point. These access points act in a similar way to a router in wired networks; however, many complicated problems, such as interference, security, and frequency re-use to avoid node data collision, have had to be overcome in order for them to come to market.

The dominance of the cellular connection classification shows us that much of the technology previously only used in the GSM (general standard for mobile communications) cellular network has been incorporated directly into wireless access points. Frequency re-use, roaming, handoff and high-efficiency antenna systems are all multi-use innovation areas, offering benefits to both cellular and Wi-Fi technologies. A significant number of patents in this area focus on connections of wireless LANs to other public and private networks, for example, PSTN (public service telephone network), GSM cellular and satellite networks. This innovation has the scope to allow access to a multiplicity of data and voice channel resources from a single node or handheld device.

Patenting Geography

View Figure 4: Wi-Fi Patenting Priority Countries

A simple glance at Figure 4 would indicate that the U.S.-based companies were outstripping all others in the development of new Wi-Fi technology. This seems contrary to the earlier (Figure 2) chart, where Scandinavian and Japanese companies featured highly.

View Figure 5: Top 10 Countries with U.S. Priority

Drilling down to finer details in Derwent Analytics (Figure 5) highlights subtler activity. The patenting activity with a U.S. priority has significant contributions from large telecom companies, such as Ericsson and Nokia, who are increasingly using the domestic U.S. patenting process as the priority for the first guard of their innovation. This may largely be due to companies seeking protection in the enormous and lucrative U.S. market as soon as possible with European applications following later. Other reasons could include the speed at which U.S. applications come to publication and grant compared with other domestic systems or maybe utilization of the new software patenting legislation makes the U.S. a more favourable approach. Conversely, Japan and Korea seem to be insular with domestic telecommunications companies dominating the innovation process.

What is the Future of Wi-Fi?

Many firms are aware of this new technology, but only major overhauls of any existing infrastructure or extending networks into less accessible areas are the current driving force for implementation. Most corporations with legacy wired ethernets see WLAN as a luxury they simply cannot afford to implement without very good cause.

With public hotspots slowly encroaching over most major cities, the use of wireless voice-over-IP (VoIP) Internet telephony could spell a downturn in the fortunes and profits of mobile phone network operators. Many large corporations could opt for wireless VoIP rather than taking up new business-tariff GSM deals. Another possibility would be an upsurge in dual protocol handsets, utilizing GSM/GPRS or 3G UMTS for “total coverage” data and voice, switching to 802.11 VoIP when near a hotspot, and moving to a reduced tariff in response.

This is just one example of how using Derwent World Patents Index on Dialog with Derwent Analytics powered by VantagePoint, can aid you in extracting business critical insights for your marketplace.

For more information on Derwent Analytics powered by VantagePoint, please visit the Thomson Derwent Web site at www.thomsonderwent.com/ analytics. Special pricing arrangements are available for Derwent World Patents Index on Dialog when used with Derwent Analytics. Please contact your Thomson Derwent or Dialog sales representative for more details.

Coming soon:

Derwent World Patents Index First View^SM, a new companion file for Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPI), providing fast, Alerting access to bibliographic, selected text and author data from new patent documents within days of publication by major patent issuing authorities.

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