Patents are in most cases the way in which companies ensure that their intellectual property is protected and that other companies and other brands do not use it without permission.

In other cases, as is now the case with 5G, they are also the way to generate some extra income for your ideas. The first to define its value was Nokia, which is known to receive 3 euros for every smartphone sold 5G.

This amount is paid by manufacturers and consumers for every phone that is sold using 5G technology. This value is defined to give access to the use of the patents of this new technology.

If many think that this value could and should be higher, because Nokia collaborated with Ericson and Huawei on defining the 5G standards, the truth is that (almost) one wants the company to be reduced to trouble. appearance.

The rule comes from the imposition of standard-essential patent holders, who are obliged to make their technologies and ideas available at a "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" price.

This figure follows the one already presented by Ericson, which stipulated that the use of its 5G patents would be in the 5 euros per equipment and, in certain special cases, this value reduced to 2.50 euros.

Strangely enough, these values ​​are much lower than those currently applied for 3G and 4G technologies. Qualcomm is one of the most patented companies and calculates 3% for every smartphone with 4G and 5% for smartphones with 3G. For an average price of $ 250, this represents an average value of $ 7.50 and $ 12.50 respectively.

With the arrival of the 5G in 2019 and 2020 it is expected that they will finally reach access levels of 20 Gbps and a waiting time of 1 to 2 seconds. The first contracts are now starting to appear and operators are preparing to prepare for the arrival of this service.