The Smartphone Royalty Stack: Surveying Royalty Demands for the Components Within Modern Smartphones

69 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2014

See all articles by Ann Armstrong

Ann Armstrong

Intel Corporation

Joseph Mueller

WilmerHale LLC

Tim Syrett

WilmerHale LLC

Date Written: May 29, 2014

Abstract

The smartphone industry has experienced a high number of patent cases over the past few years. These cases have highlighted the interplay among patent law, competition law, and the marketplace itself. This paper addresses the informational gap in the ongoing debate among courts, litigants, regulators, standard-setting organizations, and academics about the “royalty stack” for smartphones and the legal and policy implications that follow from the magnitude of such royalties. Using publicly-available data, the paper details U.S. patent royalty costs across smartphone components from wireless technologies to operating systems to user interfaces to outer-product design, addressing royalties on both product-differentiating technologies and standardized functions subject to commitments to license on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (“FRAND”) terms. Where specific royalty information is not publicly available for a particular component, the article provides an overview of the amount of litigation relating to the component as a proxy for the likelihood of royalties.

Suggested Citation

Armstrong, Ann and Mueller, Joseph and Syrett, Tim, The Smartphone Royalty Stack: Surveying Royalty Demands for the Components Within Modern Smartphones (May 29, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2443848 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2443848

Ann Armstrong

Intel Corporation ( email )

United States

Joseph Mueller (Contact Author)

WilmerHale LLC ( email )

60 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
United States

Tim Syrett

WilmerHale LLC ( email )

60 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
United States

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