Call Monitoring and Cellular Privacy

Patenting in the areas of call monitoring, including eavesdropping, and interception, and protecting the privacy of cellular callers have increased dramatically in last five years Note: Based on 2,529 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

When dividing these two concepts into different categories, the majority of the recent growth is coming from the cellular privacy area, which is much larger to start with, but call monitoring is also growing steadily Note: Based on 2,529 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

While the influence of Chinese only patent families is growing in this field, it is not growing as rapidly as the area as a whole; Between 2013 and 2014 the rate of Chinese patenting slowed Note: Based on 2,529 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

Cellular handset manufacturers are well represented in the list of companies with the highest numbers of inventions in this field with ZTE Corp, and Blackberry at the top of the list Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

Analyzing the patent families by category Ericsson, and Qualcomm have the highest number of call monitoring filings in this study, but ETRI has the largest percentage of total Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

Focusing on just the call monitoring space many of the same companies that appear in the combined list are present, but Verint Systems and Futurewei Technologies also show up Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

While these documents were published in the last five years, the accumulated forward citations by company shows that ZTE Corp, even though they have the highest number of documents have a smaller number of citations; Interdigital, LG, AT&T, and Nokia on the other hand have more citations than their number of inventions would indicate Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

A similar pattern is seen when all of the forward citations for all of the family members associated with each invention is considered; Blackberry, Ericsson, and especially Qualcomm have a significantly higher number of forward citations than ZTE even though they have significantly more individual inventions; Interdigital, and LG still punch above their weight Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

After building up large collections of inventions starting in 2011 both ZTE and Blackberry have slowed their pace of filing; Meanwhile other major handset players, especially Huawei have increased their patenting production Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

Looking at additional telecommunications companies, and component suppliers it can be seen that Ericsson, and Qualcomm have dramatically increased their activity in the field; Ericsson has largest number of inventions in 2014/15 time frame even though they are 3 rd over last five years Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year

ThemeScape analysis of the collection shows that ZTE is primary focused on secure SMS type messaging, call monitoring by law enforcement, and encryption; Blackberry is focusing on smartphone applications, and global secure access Note: Based on 2,727 call monitoring, or cellular privacy, or anonymity documents applied for between 2010 and 2015; Based on data from Thomson Innovation; Analyzed by Publication Year