Avanci, leader in patent pool licensing, announced on its official website the launch of its 5G connected car program. It is reported that Avanci’s 5G connected car licensing program has 59 initial participants, including 58 licensors and one licensee (Mercedes-Benz). The licensors are all important players in the field of mobile communication technology, including Huawei, ZTE, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia and other leading enterprises in the 5G field.

Avanci has been known for its licensing business of cellular communication standardization technology. Previously, its 4G vehicle program had more than 50 licensors and more than 80 car brands from around the world joined as licensees, covering more than 100 million connected cars of various types and prices. The launch of the 5G connected car licensing program is another important event in Avanci’s development history, and for smart connected cars, the wireless technology standard evolution from 4G to 5G will also bring unprecedented industry changes.

The Avanci 5G connected car licensing program launched this time will include 5G and 2G, 3G, 4G standard essential patents (SEPs) that are essential for cars to achieve network connectivity, including cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X). Like the previous 4G vehicle program, Avanci’s 5G vehicle program aims to simplify the licensing process for connected cars to obtain cellular communication technology. In addition to the tedious and complex one-to-one negotiations between patent holders and car manufacturers, it provides a convenient option of pooled licensing. In Avanci’s 5G connected car licensing program, only a single agreement is required for mobile communication technology patent holders to jointly license their patented inventions. For car manufacturers as standard implementers, they can also obtain joint licenses easily and efficiently through a single agreement and transparent pricing. Once the agreement is signed, car manufacturers will be able to obtain licenses for all existing and future 5G and 2G, 3G, 4G essential patents of all licensors in the project, and will also automatically obtain patent technology licenses from any new licensors joining the project. Avanci will operate as a completely independent intermediary, coordinating the mutual understanding and smooth cooperation between mobile communication technology rights holders and car manufacturers, which will help both parties save negotiation costs and focus more on R&D affairs.

Along with the official launch of Avanci’s 5G connected car licensing program, the list of its 59 initial participants was also announced. The list includes leading enterprises from China, Europe, America, Japan, Korea and other core regions of global mobile communication technology, such as China Telecom, China Mobile, Coolpad, Datang Mobile, Huawei, TCL, Unisoc (Ziguang Zhanrui), ZTE from China; Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens from Europe; Qualcomm from America; Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Panasonic from Japan; LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics from Korea (in alphabetical order by company name abbreviation). Among them, quite a few participants had previously joined Avanci’s 4G vehicle program as licensors, such as ZTE, China Mobile, Datang Mobile, Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson and so on. There are also some rights holders who joined Avanci’s vehicle licensing program for the first time, such as Huawei, China Telecom, Coolpad and so on.

It is worth noting that Huawei joined both Avanci’s 5G vehicle program and 4G vehicle program this time, which reflects Huawei and other Chinese enterprises’ high recognition of Avanci’s licensing model. According to a report released by IPlytics, a German patent data company in June 2022, Huawei was the company with the most cumulative declared families of 5G standard essential patents in the world as of the end of April 2022, while another Chinese company ZTE ranked seventh in the world. The participation of Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese enterprises is of great significance for achieving high patent coverage of Avanci’s licensing program.

Compared with the five initial participants when Avanci’s 4G vehicle program was launched in 2016, the newly born Avanci’s 5G vehicle program has greatly improved in terms of both initial rights holder number and patent number and coverage. At the same time it has licensees joining as soon as it was launched, which reflects the broad market foundation accumulated by Avanci’s pioneering licensing model in a short period of time. Among the top ten companies with the most cumulative declared families of 5G standard essential patents in the world, nine are initial participants of Avanci’s 5G vehicle program; among the top 30 companies, 19 have joined. It can be said that Avanci’s 5G vehicle program covers most of the important 5G standard essential patent holders from the moment it was launched. For manufacturers who aim to develop and manufacture 5G connected cars, Avanci’s 5G vehicle program will undoubtedly be able to provide them with most of the cellular communication technology patent licenses they need in a one-stop manner.