The Freedom to Operate Search Failures Nobody Talks About (Until It’s Too Late)
Most Freedom to Operate search failures don’t happen because the analyst missed an obvious patent. They happen because the analyst applied the wrong mental model to the job entirely. An FTO search is not a prior art hunt. It’s not an invalidity exercise. It’s a forward-looking risk assessment against live, enforceable patent rights. When analysts […]
2 Minutes of AI Patent Search & 1 Missed Non-English Filing Will Cost $4M in Litigation
You run the AI search. The tool returns 40 references in under two minutes. The top results look relevant. The technology domain aligns. The concept matches. You feel like the search is heading somewhere. This is precisely when the risk starts. AI tools have changed the pace of patent searching. Semantic search finds conceptually similar […]
6 AI Tools, One Sequence: GreyB’s Six-Layer SEP Patent Invalidation Process
Of the 800-plus SEP invalidation searches GreyB completed in the past year, the decisive prior art came from outside patent databases in most cases. The key evidence often did not come from a granted patent or a published research paper. It came from a 3GPP working group proposal, a draft contribution, an IEEE meeting document, […]
Why Telecom Companies Need to Watch Base Station Patent Transfers More Closely in 2026
An analysis of approximately 3224 US litigation cases from 2021 to 2025 involved ~3922 unique US patents. A deeper dive into those patents revealed that base station-related patents account for 52% of all telecom litigation on the docket. The five most frequently named defendants across that period are AT&T, Samsung, Verizon, T-Mobile USA, and Ericsson. […]
Why 500 Relevant LTE-M Patents Beat 2,000 Declared LTE Families Every Time
A licensor walks into a Cat-M1 negotiation citing 2,000 declared LTE families. The implementer across the table does not dispute the number. Instead, they ask a different question: how many of those families cover features does a smart meter actually use? That question is the new negotiation. And most licensors are not ready to answer […]
The 5G Licensor with Fewer Patents Is Winning the Negotiations with this one StrategyÂ
With over 100,000 patent families declared essential to 5G standards and 21 companies holding portfolios exceeding 1,000 SEPs each, the instinct heading into licensing negotiations is to lead with scale. Declared family count. ETSI share. Portfolio rank by volume. The assumption is that the number carries the leverage. But, in a growing share of 5G […]
AI Just Made SEP Claim Mapping 80% Faster – 600 Hours of Human Work to 14 Days
In SEP licensing, a declaration costs almost nothing, but challenging it costs a fortune. Across 5G, 4G LTE, HEVC, and Wi-Fi, rigorous independent reviews consistently show that 30% to 60% of declared portfolios are non-essential. This isn’t just a margin of error; it is a predictable outcome of declaration systems designed for speed, not verification. […]
A Strategic Guide on Patent Landscape Analysis for R&D and Innovation Leaders
Patent landscape analysis is a macro-level intelligence exercise that tells R&D leaders not just what is protected, but where innovation is clustering, who is driving it, and what is about to emerge. For R&D and innovation leaders navigating increasingly competitive technology landscapes, this discipline delivers five distinct strategic advantages: Yet the majority of R&D organizations […]
Samsung Lost $278 Million. Google Challenged the Same Patents at PTAB in 2026!
Fifty-one proceedings in March 2026. The number alone is the first signal worth reading. By the time these petitions were filed, Director Squires had centralized institution decisions, removed diagnostic reasoning from summary denials, and presided over an institution rate that bottomed near zero in the October-November 2025 window. The practitioners who filed in March knew […]
PTAB New Rules in 2026: Trends, Tensions & the Future of Patent Disputes
Since 2025, the U.S. patent system has moved into a period of active recalibration, with the PTAB at the center of policy, legal, and industry debate. Recent congressional discussions and USPTO actions frame this shift as an effort to restore balance by prioritizing patent quality, predictability, and rights that reliably support investment and commercialization. At […]
Beyond What AI Can Search: How Technical Context Cracked a Patent Invalidity Case
Ryan Mercer, Senior IP Counsel at a mid-size audio technology firm, was three months into an active patent infringement lawsuit. The plaintiff held a multi-mode audio signal decoder patent, a 150-word independent claim covering a specific spectral processing behavior that Ryan’s firm’s products were alleged to infringe on. Settlement was not the preferred path. The […]
Inside the 5G-Advanced Patent Landscape: The Race That Will Determine Who Controls 6G
Of the 36,166 Change Requests submitted to 3GPP for 5G-Advanced, 45.6% are concentrated in the technologies most critical to 6G. Yet only 21.9% of declared SEP families cover these same technologies. The commercial consequences of this gap are already visible. Ericsson’s patent licensing program generated approximately $880 million in 2023, a figure the company has […]
More Suits, Faster Courts, Bigger Pools. How Automotive OEMs Can Negotiate Strongly in 2026?
Over 100,000 patent families have been declared essential to 4G and 5G standards. A growing share of licensing campaigns built on that number are now targeting vehicle manufacturers. The shift is deliberate. Smartphone licensing has largely matured, and most major handset manufacturers are already under agreement. Automotive is the next major market, and licensors are […]
The Three Safest API Bets for 2026 Generic Drug Entry
Seventeen high-revenue small-molecule drugs were examined beyond simple patent expiry timelines. The review incorporated regulatory protections, competitor filings, and supply arrangements, factors that often surface late in the planning cycle and materially alter launch feasibility. Timing proved decisive. Several of them that appeared viable at first narrowed quickly when secondary protections persisted, or competitive activity […]
Largest Patent Buyers in 2025 and What Their Acquisitions Signal
In February 2025, Peninsula Technologies acquired 364 patents from Ofinno, and in April 2025, Dish Wireless was sued. With just 63 days, the acquisition-to-enforcement window of licensing companies has shrunk from years to weeks, and the need to be on the toes with these acquisition activities has never been higher. Peninsula Technology’s purchase was among […]
European generic drug opportunities surge as major medicines lose exclusivity in 2026
As healthcare budgets across Europe remain under pressure, 2026 marks an important turning point. Multiple high-cost medicines are scheduled to lose regulatory exclusivity, enabling future price competition and expanded patient access. Understanding which therapies are affected and when is essential for both policymakers and pharmaceutical manufacturers. The article lists European drug exclusivities expiring in 2026. […]