Intellectual Property Analysis of Faulkner Interstices, LLC Smart Antenna Portfolio
Cell phones, particularly multi-tasking "smart phones", continue to grow essential to the day-to-day interactions that govern business and personal communication around the world. These devices are increasingly relied upon as complete, stand-alone organizational devices, and the quality and reliability of transmission signals must necessarily be able to keep pace. As the volume of data requested from mobile devices increases, methods are needed to increase existing cellular base station data handling capabilities. The development of smart, or adaptive, antenna arrays has helped to solve this problem and allowed telecommunications providers to achieve greater standards, e.g, 2G, 3G, and, most recently, 4G. Smart antennas combine signal beam analysis and processing systems to automatically optimize reception and transmission patterns in response to the signal environment. These technologies maximize signal quality, minimize interference, and allow for efficient switching between base stations when a consumer is travelling. Smart antenna systems will be necessary components of cellular networks as providers continue to expand their coverage and therefore have significant value.
Faulkner Interstices, LLC currently possesses intellectual property concerning smart antennas with priorities dating back to 2000. This intellectual property describes smart antennas and methods for improving communication between mobile devices and a base station transceiver. While it is not transparent to the market what commercial intent Faulkner Interstices, LLC has for these patents, it is reasonable to assume that they will pursue sales or licensing models. Entities interested in Faulkner Interstices, LLC’s holdings would likely also be interested in similar innovations that lie in the public domain, some of which are listed in the following section.
As of April 2010, according to the electronic output of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Public PAIR system reports on patent assignment, Faulkner Interstices, LLC holds 22 granted U.S. patents and 5 pending U.S. patent applications. Of these properties, 10 U.S. patents and 5 pending U.S. patent application concern aspects and components of smart antenna technologies.
Analysis of the Faulkner Interstices, LLC patents have led to the identification of a number of innovations from multiple assignees residing in the public domain due to abandonment or expiration that also concern aspects of smart antennas similar to those described.
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