There are many ways to view the strength of a company such as product, revenue, profit margin, ROI, customer list, etc...However, there are invisible strengths which are often overlooked by most of the investors. The patent portfolio is one of them. Sandisk and Qualcomm are two good examples that both companies lure huge profit collecting IP licensing fee each year.
Example1:
Qualcomm receives billions of dollars in IP licensing deals. Here is the excerpt from "law.com" reported in 2007.
"In 1999 -- the year CDMA was included as standard technology for a new generation of phones that had previously used a competing system -- licensing deals generated more than $454 million, 12 percent of Qualcomm's revenue (Qualcomm also sells its own chips and software).
This year Qualcomm's licensing business has generated $2.77 billion -- 31 percent of the company's total revenue."
(Ref : http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticleFriendly.jsp?id=1196676274843)"In 1999 -- the year CDMA was included as standard technology for a new generation of phones that had previously used a competing system -- licensing deals generated more than $454 million, 12 percent of Qualcomm's revenue (Qualcomm also sells its own chips and software).
This year Qualcomm's licensing business has generated $2.77 billion -- 31 percent of the company's total revenue."
Example2:
In 2008 Samsung tried to buy out Sandisk to save the 500 millioms IP license fee. See the news link below:
(Ref : http://www.marketwatch.com/story/samsung-considering-ma-deal-with-sandisk )
Based on US patent office data, Microvision has 134 awarded patents (164 (AN/microvision) minus 18 (AN/"Hermes Microvision") minus 12 (AN/"Microvision Optical"), 195 patents obtained from Motorola and 152 patents in application (187 (AN/microvision) minus 35 (AN/"Hermes Microvision) minus 0 (AN/"Microvision Optical")). So the total patents count as of today is 481. (Please Note : I didn't include all the Microvision's licensed patents worldwide.)
How to evaluate these patents is a difficult task. One easy way is to refer to the authority's data. IEEE is the world's largest professional association for the advanced technology. It has published the patent ranking in each of the hi-tech fields in the past years. The survey was conducted for Spectrum by 1790 Analytics, in Mount Laurel, N.J., a research firm whose specialty is analyzing patent citations. From the Internet, I have collected data for 2006, 2007 and 2009 (I can't find the data for 2008). Microvision ranked 20th, 17th and 13th of those three years respectively in electronics field. See the pictures and links below:
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| 2006 IEEE patent Spectrum "Electronics" Ranking |
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| 2007 IEEE patent spectrum "Electronics" ranking |
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| 2009 IEEE patent spectrum "Electronics" ranking |
Out of the 152 awarded patents, here is the list of the top 20 referenced patents:
Patent # Ref count Title
(1) 6245590 : 62 Frequency tunable resonant scanner and method of making
(2) 6140979 : 55 Scanned display with pinch, timing, and distortion correction
(3) 6331909 : 53 Frequency tunable resonant scanner
(4) 6687034 : 44 Active tuning of a torsional resonant structure
(5) 6674993 : 43 Method and system for identifying data locations associated with real world observations
(6) 6515278 : 36 Frequency tunable resonant scanner and method of making
(7) 6285489 : 35 Frequency tunable resonant scanner with auxiliary arms
(8) 6650877 : 34 Method and system for identifying data locations associated with real world observations
(9) 6433907 : 28 Scanned display with plurality of scanning assemblies
(10) 6445362 : 24 Scanned display with variation compensation
(11) 6384406 : 23 Active tuning of a torsional resonant structure
(12) 6762867 : 23 Scanned display with plurality of scanning assemblies
(13) 6256131 : 22 Active tuning of a torsional resonant structure
(14) 6151167 : 22 Scanned display with dual signal fiber transmission
(15) 6362912 : 19 Scanned imaging apparatus with switched feeds
(16) 6512622 : 18 Active tuning of a torsional resonant structure
(17) 6515781 : 18 Scanned imaging apparatus with switched feeds
(18) 6661393 : 16 Scanned display with variation compensation
(19) 6795221 : 16 Scanned display with switched feeds and distortion correction
(20) 6525310 : 12 Frequency tunable resonant scanner
As you can see, many of the top references have the same title or similar titles. They all center around the design of the tunable scanner with some kind of compensations or variations. These are so called "bolts and nuts" that forms the fundamental of the MEMS scanning mirror design.
As many industry experts have stated, Scanning mirror MEMS is the best solution for pico projector. It's just the cost issue (Green laser) preventing it from becoming the main stream. Once the obstacle is removed, we own the future.
Next: Microvision patent portfolio (Part 2 : interesting patents )
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