Article | BRPTO’s Technological Radar Addresses 5G Technology in Brazil and the World

At the end of July, the BRPTO published its latest Technological Radar, with an overview of patent applications related to 5G technology in Brazil and worldwide.

The 5G technology has been seen as a pillar technology for the digital transformation process and is disruptive for several sectors, being also applicable to the Internet of Things (IoT). Some of the gains obtained with the use of 5G technology in broadband, latency reduction, and multiplicity of connected devices have a great potential for the development of new services and products, with applications in the fields of education, the automotive industry, entertainment, health, and several others.

In view of the relevance of 5G for the development of various sectors and even social aspects, since internet access has become an essential item, the 5G Auction was held in 2021, and approved by the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL). This Auction established a series of “Scope Commitments” that define the obligations to provide telecommunication services for the winning companies of the Auction.

Referring to the Radar published by the BRPTO, the patent applications taken as a basis were those self-declared as essential to 5G technology but also to other generations, and those self-declared as essential only to 5G technology in the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). However, the BRPTO combined the data obtained by the self-declaration with data obtained from other databases, which created a robust set of data for the analysis.

When it comes to the provenance of these technologies, it was identified that the countries of origin are China (with 40% of the 5G patent applications), the United States (with 20%), and the Republic of Korea (with 18%). In Brazil, filings of patent applications related to 5G represent 11% of worldwide filings, and the origin of these applications filed in Brazil is the United States, followed by China and Japan. Moreover, the companies that file the most in Brazil are Huawei (CN), Qualcomm (USA), and BBK Electronics (CN).

The Radar published by the BRPTO also discusses the main technologies for which patent applications have been filed and evaluated using the IPC classifications of the applications. The main classifications are H04W72 (referring to local resource management) and H04L5 (referring to provisions allowing multiple uses of the transmission path), both being related to the management of available resources.

The relevance of 5G has consequences for boosting research, innovation, and development, digital transformation, and improving connectivity in areas without prior internet access, with the potential to transform entire sectors. And the global intellectual property system, as a tool to foster development, is of great importance for overcoming the technical challenges that the implementation of 5G presents, so that society can enjoy the full potential of this technology.

Read the complete Technological Radar (in Portuguese) at https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/assuntos/informacao/RADAR_5G_2023_PARA_PUBLICAR.pdf

Author: Tainara Barbosa, Patent Specialist

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