Posts Tagged: "IoT"

A partnership between Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) has resulted in the development of a new non-volatile memory called 3D XPoint (pronounced “crosspoint”). The improved characteristics of 3D XPoint compared to NAND flash are on an entirely different order of magnitude. The increased endurance means that 3D XPoint would be able to undergo millions of write cycles whereas NAND can only handle tens of thousands before the component starts to deteriorate. Both Intel and Micron compare the speed gains of the memory chip to reducing the amount of time that it takes to travel on a flight from San Francisco to Beijing from 12 hours down to 43 seconds.

New business realities have led forward thinking business strategists to look for new ways to monetize innovation in spite of the popularly held belief by many in the U.S. that patents are worthless. Not surprisingly, these new strategies for monetizing innovation focus on tried and true business strategies for building tech companies from the ground up. It is back to business basics.

The nature of broadband has been changing in a way that Wheeler believes will spur even more robust data services in the near future. The FCC is taking a number of steps to try and promote competition among broadband service providers, one of the most highly anticipated of which is the incentive auction of broadcast television airwave spectrum which is currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2016. The auction is an attempt to purchase spectrum from TV broadcasters so that it can be resold in a later auction to wireless service providers.

Global innovation continued to climb during 2014 but at the slowest pace seen since the global economic recession hit in 2009. The Reuters report didn’t draw any specific conclusions as to why the innovation slowdown had occurred but did draw a correlation between published scientific literature and patenting activities, noting that the former typically precedes the latter by three to five years. As graphs published in the Reuters study clearly show, scientific literature publications in 12 industries increased between 2008 and 2009 at a slower rate than prior years, mirroring the patenting slowdown experienced this year. Troublingly, a steep drop in published scientific literature was experienced in 2010, so if this model holds we may see a reduction in global patenting activity when the annual Reuters innovation study comes out next year.

Netflix raised a lot of ire in recent weeks when it negotiated a sponsored data agreement with two Australian ISPs. Those sponsored data agreements, which ensure that a certain amount of bandwidth is devoted to Netflix customers, was accused of running afoul of the very precepts of net neutrality for which the company lobbied here at home. From an innovation standpoint, if Netflix isn’t forced to pay for the bandwidth that it takes up, Netflix has no incentive to innovate a solution to the bandwidth problem that it has created for itself.

The speedy evolution of what defines IoT is why the phrase is frequently called a concept, although it is best to say that the IoT describes the not too distant future where ordinary, everyday objects are connected to the Internet. That means that those objects, which can range from wearable devices to washing machines to lamps and coffee makers, will not only be able to relate to the user, but will be able to relate to one another and act in unison. It is against this backdrop that ICAP Patent Brokerage is going to be holding an Internet of Things auction on April 23, 2015. This auction will sell patent portfolios relating to wearables, smart-home technology, medical records and medical data collection, shipping and retail logistics/data, Big Data (including distributed storage architecture), sensors (MEMS and motion sensors), and the standards that drive the connectivity between them (802.11, NFC, Bluetooth, RFID, Zigbee, and PLC).