China Mobile has agreed to contribute to Via Licensing's LTE patent pool, lending weight to the attempt to create a one-stop shop for the licensing needs of LTE device makers.
China Mobile and European telecom giant Deutsche Telekom will both offer their essential LTE patents through the pool, Via Licensing announced yesterday.
“The addition of these key patent holders increases the benefit that the Via LTE patent pool brings to the 4G ecosystem,” Via Licensing president Roger Ross said.
“The inclusion of standard-essential patents from China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom to the LTE patent pool further strengthens the program and ensures licensees worldwide access to critical LTE IPR.”
The pool was first formed in October, with intellectual property from ZTE, KDDI, DoCoMo, SK Telecom, AT&T, Clearwire, HP, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, and DTVG Licensing.
The inclusion of China Mobile, which has been a major contributor to the development of the TD-LTE standard, is a coup for Via Licensing's efforts to simplify LTE licensing through the pool.
But the project still lacks the support of many important LTE patent holders, including Ericsson and Qualcomm.
While All Things Digital notes that these vendors are unlikely to join as patent licensing is key to their business, Ross told the news site that it hopes to attract other big names such as Huawei, LG or Apple.