Description
To identify Samsung’s patents related to Wi-Fi 6, we employed Wi-Fi 6 relevant keywords such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Target Wake Time (TWT), Basic Service Set (BSS) Color, High-Efficiency (HE), 802.11ax, 160 MHz, beamforming, spatial streams, 78.125 kHz, 1024-QAM, spatial reuse, Resource Unit (RU) allocation, etc. The CPCs used for filtering included H04W, H04W 84/12, H04W 72/04, H04W 72/12, H04W 52/02, H04W 52/36, H04W 88/08, H04B, H04B 7/06, etc.
To assess a patent’s essentiality, each claim is manually analysed by our technical expert team with respect to the Wi-Fi 6 standard to verify whether all claim elements are present. We have classified a patent as potentially essential, potentially non-essential, or medium based on the following criteria:
- A patent is classified as potentially essential if claim elements align with the Wi-Fi 6 specifications.
- Conversely, the patent is classified as potentially non-essential if any element is missing or conflicts with the standard, such as contradictory requirements or descriptions.
- A patent is marked as medium if the main technical aspects are present in the Wi-Fi 6 standard, but some elements are not explicitly defined and can only be reasonably inferred from the identified sections.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Samsung Wi-Fi 6 report analyse?
It analyses Samsung’s patent portfolio in relation to Wi-Fi 6. A total of 41 unique patent families related to Wi-Fi 6 technology were identified for Samsung. The work looks at the scope, relevance and potential essentiality of those families against key Wi-Fi 6 technologies, including OFDMA, MU-MIMO, beamforming, BSS color, Target Wake Time and spatial streams. Each claim is analysed manually by the technical expert team against the standard, to verify whether all claim elements are present.
What do potentially essential, potentially non-essential and medium mean?
They are the three labels used in this report. Each claim is examined against the Wi-Fi 6 standard to see whether all of its elements are present. A patent is marked potentially essential when the claim elements are found in the standard, and potentially non-essential when they are not. Medium covers the cases in between, where the match is partial or turns on how a passage of the standard is read. The wording keeps each finding open to review.
Why is the search limited to a February 2021 priority date?
The Wi-Fi 6 standard was officially published in February 2021, so the search was restricted to patents with a priority date on or before that month. Filings after that date fall outside the window used here. Searches ran across multiple patent databases and combined search strings, IPC and CPC classifications, and keywords specific to Wi-Fi 6, so the family count for Samsung follows one consistent rule.
Who would use this report?
Licensing teams, patent counsel and technology planners are the usual readers. A family level view of one filer supports licence talks, benchmarking against peers, diligence on wireless portfolios and planning around specific Wi-Fi 6 features. Engineering teams also read it to see where filings cluster within 802.11ax. The labels are stated as potential findings with the reasoning attached, so an internal expert can review each conclusion before it is used in a negotiation.
