Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) said it is aiming to increase revenue from its patent portfolio.
The world's largest mobile infrastructure vendor holds more than 27,000 patents. "By 2015 two thirds of all consumer electronics devices will have some sort of connectivity," Hans Vestberg said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Any company or manufacturer that wants to get in there will need an agreement with Ericsson."
Ericsson's patents cover "basically everything in the telecom industry," including the world's largest collection of Wi-Fi patents, Vestberg said. Revenue from patents reached $704 million last year.
Vestberg also stressed the need for new business models when it comes to patent licensing. Bilateral agreements won't be practical when it comes to the connected devices market, which are expected to reached 50 billion by 2020.
Ericsson, as part of a coalition of companies, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), won Nortel Networks' patent portfolio for $4.5 billion in a bankruptcy auction, outbidding Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Intel.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
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