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Great article on Nokia patent portfolio

There's a great article on SeekingAlpha analyzing Nokia's patent portfolio and their likely ability to profit from it as the mobile industry continues to develop.

One of the key points in the article is the strength of Nokia's location technologies, including indoor location. The article writes:

Location Based Mapping Patents Are Hidden Jewel of Nokia Patent PortfolioOne emerging and potentially highly profitable area in which Nokia has a distinct patent advantage is indoor-mapping. This technology is vital to the expected future trends of mobile advertising which will come to directly target individual users based on their proximity to retail locations within malls and other large indoor locations. ...
Google was the first company to unveil a version of this new technology on current smart devices, with the "My Location," feature within the November 2011 release of "Google Maps 6 for Android." Despite being the first to release this technology in a platform compatible with current mobile devices, a December 2011 report on the particular indoor-positioning patent holdings of each major technology company by the research firm Grizzly Analytics found that Google held an alarmingly low amount of indoor-positioning relevant patents. The firm ranked the companies by the breadth of their research and the number of years they've been working on indoor positioning, said founder Bruce Krulwich in an interview for a December 2011 Forbes magazine article on this topic...
With the two strongest indoor-positioning patent portfolios, the Grizzly Analytics report concluded that the Microsoft and Nokia partnership puts the two companies in prime position to dominate this potentially monumental growth industry, "if Microsoft and Nokia pool their mapping assets, as they have pledged to do in upcoming Windows Phone devices, they could offer the industry's strongest indoor positioning service. Both have made such investments in this area, they would have a leg up if they can get a combined system out to market," said Krulwich.

The article also looks closely at Nokia's patent holdings in the 4G/LTE area.  Definitely worth a read.

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