Weekly IP Newsletter of the World 2

In the world of patents 

The US is still the best place IP wise, "patents" is a different story ~ In a new report by US Chamber of Commerce's Global IP Center, US leads the pack if only by a thin margin. 

IP infringement is at historic high and still growing
Adequate damages, although growing, are still a critical challenge
Barriers to commercialization of IP, especially for foreign players 

However, when viewed just from the lens of patents, the US only scores a 7 out of 8, far behind European countries like Sweden, UK, Germany, France, etc. (7.5) and Japan (7.25).

The key issues the report had with the US system were that the patent opposition system adds unnecessary cost and uncertainty. They also feel US patentability standards in biotech & software are much narrower than International standards. 

China too has a long way to go scoring only 4.35 with the chief complaints being inadequate damages and treatment of foreign IP enforcers.

US IP

a.Signing 32 licensing agreements, with three renewals, and
b.Acquiring portfolios from Kodak, Panasonic, SRI, etc.
c.WiLan stock is up 43% from one year ago, but still down 70% if you had bought it in 2012 when AIA came into effect
d.In other news, WiLan also got into a deal with Microsemi
e.Indemnification from all litigations, including open source tech used in Azure
f.Access to a pool of 10,000 Microsoft patents which they use in case someone sues them
g.A license on transfer to the Microsoft patents i.e. If the assets somehow make it to an NPE, you already have a license to it.
h.Azure IP Advantage ~ In a brilliant move of combining IP & Business, Microsoft is now offering Azure users three unique benefits
i.WiLan reports 60% net margin ~ In its quarterly report, WiLan highlighted that it generated 53.7 Mn $ of EBITDA on a revenue of 92.9 Mn $. The company also cited
j.'1 in, 2 Out' Executive order expects to create headaches at PTO regarding refinement of AIA
k.Northern District of California's new litigation rules require earlier damage assessment
l.AMD goes after LG, Vizio & Mediatek at ITC for GPUs in their SmartTVs
m.Cypress Semiconductor reassigns over 2000 patents to IPValue India lowers taxes on patent exploitation revenue to 10% for patents developed in India 

In the world of technology 

Snap 

a.Snap is a camera company, and spectacles are part of the long-term strategy
b.158 million daily active users are sending 2.5 billion snaps daily i.e. 15.8 per DAU
c.$ 404.5 Mn in Revenue in 2016 with net loss of $ 514.6 Mn
d.Relies extensively on Google Cloud for infrastructure with a commitment to spend 2 Bn $ over the next five years
e.Views Apple, Google & Facebook as key competitors, called out Instagram from mimicking "stories" feature
f.Cybersecurity, changes to Net Neutrality, inability to protect IP, and dependence on Google Cloud as risk factors
g.Majority of the user engagement is on iOS
h.A quarterly ARPU of 1.05 $ worldwide
i.North American quarterly ARPU of about 2.15 $
j.Snap looks more like Twitter at its IPO than Facebook at its IPO 

k.The FCC chairman's (a former Verizon lawyer) stance on FCC is something for them to worry about
i.S-1 ~ Snap Inc's filed their S-1 last week and some fascinating insights as expected
m.Snap hired strong.codes co-founder. Strong.codes is a company which helps prevent reverse engineering of apps.

Amazon 

a.AWS hits 12 Billion $ in revenue ~ AWS revenue grew 55% last year to meet 12 Bn $ 

b.Amazon expands bay area footprint
c.Amazon is also going to spend 1.5 Bn $ on an AirHub in Kentucky. 

1.Zenefits new CEO slashes 45% of the workforce ~ plans to move the company to Arizona saying "The Bay area is an expensive place to do business." Zenefits isn't the only one Intel is also planning to invest 7 Billion $ in Arizona aiming to create 3,000 jobs in the state long-term. It's time larger companies are starting to realize that retaining good talent in the bay area is hard as Bay Area engineers are amongst the lowest paid in the country when adjusted for cost of living second only to New York. Denver & Austin score highest on that metric. 

2.Google bring Image upscaling to Google+ with RAISR ~ Image upscaling allows upscaling by mathematically filling in the missing details needed for higher resolution. Right now Google is only using it for Google+, but it is easy to imagine this being an Android-wide feature which would allow Android phones to consume less data than say iOS devices. I can't emphasize enough on why technologies like H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, and maybe RAISR & Draco in future are the unsung heroes of the mobile revolution. 

3.Apple to manufacture iPhones in India ~ Indian IT ministry seems to have captured the dreams of American POTUS. This will help Apple sell iPhones at a more competitive price in India. Taiwan-based Wistron is the company expected to be doing the manufacturing for Apple starting April. 

4.China
a.Chinese factories replace 90% of the workforce with robots ~ Sees 80% drop in defects while gaining 250% in production. CGPGrey's "Humans need not apply" is becoming truer every day.
b.China's Xiaomi builds its own chipset ~ ARM seems China as a huge opportunity and has now partnered with HOPU to set up a VC fund in China to grow its ecosystem.
c.China double solar power capacity in 2016 ~ The country now has 77.42 GW of installed capacity and will likely add another 110 GW by 2020. 

5.The best cloud ad I have seen like ever 

In the world of auto 

Ford 

a.Higher taxes hurt GM & Ford in China ~ GM's deliveries fell by 24% last month to 321,264 while Ford deliveries dropped by 32% to 88,342. The companies attribute the steep decline to the rise in purchase tax from 5% to 7.5% for cars with engines between 1.6 L to 7.5 L. GM's Cadillac brand, however, grew by 116% and saw 18,000 vehicles being delivered.
b.Ford opens a mobility hub in NYC ~ It's a brand experience store
c.Ford partners with Exxon to let drivers pay for gas using Sync 3 app 

1.Fujitsu rolls out FRAM for automotive applications ~ FRAM stands for Ferroelectric RAM. FRAM's have higher range being able to stand the harsher weather. Given that Automotives experience a broader range of weather than say a mobile or PC, the electronics will need significant hardening to be able to be useful. 

2.Samsung SDI showcases fast charging battery ~ Claims it can provide range of 600 km (372.8 miles) with a 20 minutes charge 

3.GM & Honda to work together on Fuel-Cells ~ The two companies will be pooling about 2200 patents on the technology 

4.Piaggio launches Gita ~ A personal carrier which can carry your groceries. 

5.Uber wants to build flying cars 

Key fundings & acquisitions 

1.Alibaba's ANT raises 3 Billion $ in debt
2.Priceline acquires European Momondo group for 550 Mn $
3.Nokia buys Comptel for 370 Mn Euros to push deeper into carrier software
4.Fuze raises 104 Mn $ (304 Mn $) raising to build a cloud-based communication platform
5.AirBnB acquires competitors Luxury Retreats for 200 Mn $
6.Beijing's Shansong raises 50 Mn $ to provide short-distance logistics (courier services)
7.India's CarTrade.com raises 50 Mn $ (240.3 Mn $ total)
8.Norway's NEXT biometrics raises 18.7 Mn $ to build flexible sensors