LexisNexis unites telecoms leaders to boost patent data accuracy

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LexisNexis has united telecoms giants on an initiative that promises to improve how patent data is standardised, cleaned, and verified.

The ‘Cellular Verified’ initiative features over 30 leading companies that hold a substantial share of global 5G patents. By bringing these leaders together, the initiative aims to address the long-standing issues of inaccuracies and biases in patent declaration data.

Over the course of a year, LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions worked closely with top players in the telecoms sector to refine their declared patent database. The result is a 99.9 percent accuracy rate, achieved through a process of matching, cleaning, enhancing, and verifying patent families against the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) declaration database.

Addressing a systematic bias

The challenges in patent declaration data are well-documented.

Tim Pohlmann, Managing Director Americas and Director of SEP Analytics for LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions, explained: “Patent declaration data is inherently inconsistent, shaped by each company’s unique declaration practices.

“If such self-declarations are not rigorously cleaned and verified, the data favours companies that provide more detailed and cleaner information, resulting in a systematic bias. This creates significant challenges for the industry, from licensing negotiations to FRAND rate determinations.”

With Cellular Verified, LexisNexis aims to establish “a trusted and impartial source for critical decisions.” The initiative, according to Pohlmann, is a testament to the industry-wide resolve to deliver reliable and comprehensive patent declaration data.

Alan Fan, VP and Head of the IPR Department at Huawei, added: “Our industry has long faced challenges with gaps, redundancies, and errors in patent declaration data, which can lead to inefficiencies in licensing and disputes.

“Our collaborative work with LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions on the Cellular Verified initiative has significantly strengthened the accuracy of patent declaration data for all stakeholders. This initiative provides clarity to the market and enables us to focus on innovation and strategic growth with greater confidence.”

Complexities of telecoms patent data declarations

As the body responsible for hosting a database of declared patents essential to standards such as 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, ETSI is at the heart of efforts to ensure interoperability across networks and devices. This database encompasses over 555,000 declared patents across 100,000 patent families.  

Yet, the self-declaration process introduces significant mismatches.

Companies often differ in how they submit patent numbers. Some provide only provisional numbers, while others declare complete sets—including applications, granted patents, and jurisdictional counterparts. Compounding this inconsistency is the push to declare patents earlier, sometimes including items that have not yet been made public.

This has created an ambiguous database where analyses of 4G and 5G patent ownership become prone to bias. Companies that submit more detailed information seem to dominate in reports, while those declaring less comprehensively are underrepresented, leading to flawed licensing negotiations and disputes over FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) rates.

“Forty percent of self-declared patents cannot be directly matched to normalised and cleaned patent information, while roughly 20 percent of matched numbers result in false positives due to the ambiguity of patent numbers,” according to LexisNexis.

Cellular Verified

To address these challenges, LexisNexis collaborated with over 30 of the top ETSI-declaring companies to develop a transparent and robust process for patent data standardisation.

Cellular Verified hinges on several core processes:

  • Matching and cleaning data: Algorithms were used to standardise patent numbers across multiple formats, achieving the 99.9 percent accuracy rate, informed by feedback from participating companies.  
  • Expanding family coverage: Missing patent family counterparts were identified to ensure broader visibility into the global patent landscape.  
  • Classifying patents by technology generation: Cross-referencing ETSI datasets allowed correct classification into generational standards (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G).  
  • Enhancing ownership data: Patent ownership records were updated using corporate tree data to resolve discrepancies stemming from acquisitions or reassignments.  

A key feature of Cellular Verified is its updated and validated database, which undergoes weekly refinements to ensure stakeholders have access to the most accurate and timely information.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the process, LexisNexis showcased how its advanced matching algorithms improved rates with every iteration—from initial attempts (termed “t1”) to the final verified status (“Cellular Verified”):

Chart showing LexisNexis Cellular Verified 5g telecoms patent data matching rate.

The initiative’s success has far-reaching implications. By providing an impartial, standardised dataset, stakeholders can now evaluate patent portfolios with greater accuracy during licensing negotiations, benchmark offers against comparable agreements, and even prepare stronger strategies for FRAND compliance.

While this initiative sets a benchmark for patent transparency, it also demonstrates the potency of collaboration. By engaging directly with industry leaders, LexisNexis has delivered a patent data solution that benefits not just individual companies but the telecoms ecosystem as a whole.

(Photo by Anastase Maragos)

See also: Telecoms in 2025: AI and next-gen infrastructure among key trends

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Tags: 5G, patents, telecoms


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