You might be riding to work in a driverless car without ever having to look up from your text messages. Or you might rely on weather forecasts derived from micro-weather patterns using the barometric sensor of every iPad inside a local area. These kinds of Internet of Things (IoT) miracles will use dozens or even thousands of IoT devices. That creates challenges for a company trying to protect its IoT innovations, or for a company trying to avoid infringing someone else's protected technology.
Companies, like IBM, Intel, and Qualcomm, recognize patents as potent business tools because they can use them to keep competitors out of a market or obtain lucrative licensing royalties by allowing the competitors to practice the inventions. In 2015 alone, these companies each applied for and obtained several thousand new U.S. patents, many on IoT-related inventions. Experts estimate that more than 20,000 patents and patent applications covering IoT technologies exist world-wide. But are IoT patents truly valuable? In this articles, Finnegan attorneys Kenie Ho and Hsin-Yuan (Charles) Huang discuss enforcing IoT patents.
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