Patent licensing strategy for stakeholders entering the Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is impacting and empowering stakeholders’ interaction with new technologies, from human skills enhancement to the development of ‘smart’ objects, houses, schools, business and cities.1 Indeed, by interconnecting physical objects via the Internet and enabling technologies to send, gather and analyse massive information,2 the IoT is offering solutions increasingly adopted in almost all industrial sectors.3 The value of the IoT extends to the optimization and increasing visibility of service operations, development of products and services and improvement of manufacturing processes and new business models.4 In fact, it is estimated that, by 2030, the IoT will add $14.2 trillion to the global economy.5 For the European Commission, the IoT is ‘the next major breakthrough’ in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.6 To achieve its full potential, although, the IoT depends on high-quality interconnectivity and interoperability, mostly provided by cellular...