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Mapping 5G Technical Standards to Patent Claims: Tools, Techniques, and Best Practices

The fifth generation of wireless technology (5G) is a transformative leap in mobile communications. This technology is merely increasing speed and represents a fundamental transformation in the behavior of devices and systems that interact and exchange information. At its core, it is structured around three key service pillars:

Enhanced Mobile Broadband (EMBB): Delivers ultra-fast data with maximum speed for applications like 4K/8K video streaming, AR/VR, and high-density internet access in urban areas.

Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC): High-priority applications such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and remote surgery are supported with great importance by providing latencies below 1ms.

Massive Machine-Type Communications (MMTC): Massive connectivity is enabled for IoT ecosystems, such as smart cities and agriculture, with power-efficient and low-data-rate transmissions.

Importance of Patent Claim Mapping in SEP Analysis for 5G Technologies

Thousands of companies are involved in the development of 5G technology. The landscape of this technology is saturated with standard-essential patents (SEPs), which are unavoidable for implementing 5G standards. Identifying and mapping these SEPs is important for:

  • Negotiating for licensing and justifying the royalty rate
  • Defending for litigation and freedom-to-operate (FTO)
  • Valuating the portfolio and declaring SEPs to SDOs (e.g., ETSI)

Mapping the claim accurately allows stakeholders to demonstrate the standard adherence, asserting the Intellectual Property rights, or challenging the patent validity effectively.

The Complexity of Aligning 3GPP Standards with 5G Patent Disclosures

Mapping 5G technical standards is challenging due to:

  • The high level of technical details provided in 3GPP standards is mostly written in protocol-specific and hardware-neutral language.
  • Ambiguity in Patent claims leads to the use of generalized or abstract phrasing.
  • The constant evolution of standards from 3GPP Releases 15 to 18 highlights the importance of the patents that match accurately to the corresponding version of the standard patent.

As a result, technical specifications are efficiently aligned with the patent language, becoming a complex and multi-layered process that requires more careful interpretation and analysis.

Roles of ETSI and 3GPP in Standardization

  • ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) facilitates the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) database, which collects declarations of the SEP.
  • 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) creates the technical specifications (TS) and technical reports (TR) for 5G.

Why it matters:

  • ETSI and 3GPP are the primary governing bodies that define the standard implementations.
  • Patent owners must declare SEPs to ETSI and align claims to 3GPP documents to substantiate their essentiality.
  • Patent-to-standard mapping relies predominantly on Technical Specification documents (e.g., TS 38.213 for MAC/PHY, TS 38.331 for RRC).

Tools for Claim Mapping in 5G

  1. Tools for Patent Research and Analysis

These tools are used to extract claims as text, legal status, equivalents in family, and technical classifications (IPC/CPC codes).

Tool Functionality
Derwent Innovation Advanced analytics of patents, tracking the family,  interpretation of claims, and analyzing the citations
Orbit Intelligence Monitoring the SEP, landscape analysis, and AI-driven insights for mapping.
Patsnap Combines Intellectual Property and Research & Development data which includes filtering the SEP, licensing the data, and forwarding the citation networks.

  1. Protocol and Packet Analysis Tools

 

Tool Functionality
Wireshark Packet sniffing in real-time and protocol dissection, which is useful for mapping the claims in reverse from the systems that are deployed.
NS-3 (Network Simulator 3) An open-source simulator is used to model LTE/NR behavior and validate the steps of the protocol in claim charts.
Open Air Interface (OAI) Replicating the 5G RAN is useful for verifying the functionality of the claims in simulated environments.

Example Use: A claim is about “DCI format scheduling,” then use NS-3 or OAI to simulate the flow of traffic and verify the mapping to Technical Specifications 38.213 by scheduling procedures.

  1. Claim Charting and Documenting Tools
Tool Functionality
ClaimMaster Automate the parsing of claims, numbering, and formatting the chart, especially to file legally.
PatentCloud (InQuartik) Comparison of claims with the help of artificial intelligence, Analytics of the prior art, and visualization of claims in SEP.
In-House Systems (Excel, Airtable, Python scripts) Customized templates for mapping, with integration for highlighting the standard sections and drawing visual correspondence.

Techniques for Mapping 5G Technical Standards to Patent Claims Effectively:

  1. Keyword and Conceptual Alignment

The main objective is to identify the specific content, like important keywords in the text, which are common in both the claim language and terminology used in the 3GPP or ETSI standards.

Procedure:

  • Extracting the important technical terms and keywords from the claims. For example, “scheduling request,” “beam index,” “bandwidth part”.
  • Using the standard format of 3GPP PDFs, which are easy to search on online portals to identify the exact matches or synonyms. For example, “bandwidth part” in Technical Specification 38.213.
  • Providing more importance to the variation in terminology because some terms in patents might use legacy phrasing or company-specific jargon.

Tools: Adobe Acrobat tool is used to facilitate search & markup, Lens.org is used to facilitate full-text patent search, and 3GPP Portal.

  1. Protocol Stack Layer Mapping

The main objective of protocol stack layer monitoring is to map the notable function or structure of the patent claim to the consequent layer of the patent claimed expressed in the stack of 5G protocol.

5G Stack Layers:

  • Physical Layer (PHY) – The physical layer is defined in the technical specifications 38.211, 38.214, which encompasses important aspects such as modulation, HARQ, and beam forming techniques.
  • MAC Layer – Specially provided in technical specification 38.321 which is focusing on various functions like scheduling and HARQ management.
  • RLC/PDCP – Technical Specification 38.322/38.323 which are addressing mechanisms like retransmission and reordering.
  • RRC (Radio Resource Control) – outlined in technical Specification 38.331 which includes the procedure for connection setup, release, re reconfiguration.

How to Do It:

  • Review the patent claim carefully to identify whether it relates to signal transmission, scheduling, error correction, mobility, or encryption.
  • Match the identified function with the appropriate section in the technical specification document.
  • Use the standard figures for example, Layer 2 protocol is illustrated in 3GPP point of view to visualize the position.

Example
Claim: “A method for dynamically adjusting HARQ timing”
Match: 3GPP Technical Specification 38.214 Section 6 coincides with the physical Layer Procedures and HARQ process management.

  1. Use Case or Scenario Based Mapping

The main objective is to frame the mapping of patent claims in the context of a real-world or standard-defined scenario presented in the real-time.

5G
[Image Sources: Shuttestock]

How to Do It:

  • Refer to use cases which are described in detail in the 3GPP TRs (Technical Reports) like TR 38.913 or TR 22.261.
  • Understanding a particular feature in depth, for example, handover, carrier aggregation, or power control, which is deployed in practice.
  • Relate claim language to this deployment behavior, rather than just the textual content of the patent.

Example:
A patent claiming “prioritization of URLLC packets over EMBB” can be mapped to 3GPP TS 38.321, Section 6.3.1, which describes logical channel prioritization in MAC.

Best Practices

  1. Always cite the exact 3GPP release and version. Example- Release 16, TS 38.214 V16.3.0.
  2. Check for terminology shifts across releases. Some concepts are renamed or expanded.
  3. Use diagrams from both patents and standards for visual mapping.
  4. Validate functionality using testbeds or simulation (e.g., verifying HARQ process handling via NS-3).
  5. Record any limitations and underlying assumptions, as interpreting claims can often be subjective and require a nuanced understanding.

Author: Dr. S. Sarayu Priyadharshini, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to [email protected] or at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

References

  1. (2023). Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 17) (3GPP TS 38.213 V17.4.0). https://www.3gpp.org
  2. (2023). Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17) (3GPP TS 38.331 V17.5.0). https://www.3gpp.org
  3. European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). (n.d.). ETSI IPR Online Database. https://ipr.etsi.org
  4. IEEE Xplore. (n.d.). IEEE Xplore Digital Library. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org
  5. Derwent Innovation. (2024). Clarivate Derwent Innovation Platform. Clarivate Analytics. https://clarivate.com/products/derwent-innovation/
  6. (2024). PatentCloud: IP Intelligence Platform. https://www.patentcloud.com
  7. (2024). OpenAirInterface 5G Software Alliance. https://openairinterface.org/
  8. NS-3 Consortium. (2023). Network Simulator 3 (NS-3): 5G NR Module. https://www.nsnam.org
  9. Blind, K., Bekkers, R., & Thumm, N. (2011). Study on the Interplay between Standards and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/12441

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