Wi-Fi Economic Report Update: Wi-Fi 7 adds no value over Wi-Fi 6

Unified Patents and The Brattle Group, a renowned group of economists and damages experts, announced an update to its 2025 Wi-Fi RAND Licensing Rate Report, extending the analysis to Wi-Fi 7 and to developments in the Wi-Fi standard-essential patent licensing market since the original report. The full report is available exclusively to members of Unified Patents’ Wi-Fi Zone.

The 2025 report estimated an aggregate reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty range of $0.45 to $0.68 per device for Wi-Fi functionality through Wi-Fi 6/6E. The update examines whether Wi-Fi 7 justifies raising that range and whether separate royalty rates for enterprise and residential access points can be reconciled with RAND principles, drawing on new pool launches, recently published rate cards, a European court decision, and current market data.

The update reaches two principal conclusions. First, although Wi-Fi 7 delivers meaningful engineering advances, they improve performance along dimensions the standard already priced rather than introducing a qualitatively new source of value, and recent licensing evidence is consistent with this view. Brattle therefore concludes that the aggregate RAND range for Wi-Fi functionality through Wi-Fi 7 remains $0.45 to $0.68 per unit, as a single cumulative rate rather than an additional royalty for each generation. Second, the report finds an economic basis for a moderate premium on enterprise access points relative to residential products, grounded in differences in how much of the standard each product class implements and in the price sensitivity of its buyers. The full report sets out the supporting analysis, the market evidence, and the implications for implementers.

For more information, email sasha@unifiedpatents.com.

Key Patent Innovations entity, Valtrus Innovations, litigation analysis available

Valtrus Innovations Limited, backed by Irish patent monetization platform Key Patent Innovations, has rapidly developed multiple parallel assertion programs built on large tranches of acquired assets, targeting cloud, data center, storage, and open‑source‑related technology.

The Valtrus campaign is supported by a sophisticated financing structure and an experienced assertion team. It has already generated a dense landscape of district court litigation, IPRs, declaratory judgement and reexamination activity that Unified has analyzed to better inform its members on strategy for dealing with the infringement and licensing demands Valtrus and its affiliates are currently asserting.

In this members-only confidential summary, a draft example of Unified’s invalidity and ex parte reexamination work product for one of the Valtrus patents is included in the report. Members and non-members should reach out to Sasha Sokhis, Head of Client Relations and Business Development at Unified (sasha@unifiedpatents.com), for further insights and discussion.

Nearly $500 million in Economic Benefit From Fewer NHK-Fintiv Denials at the PTAB: Report

The Perryman Group, in a recent economic study commissioned by Unified Edge, has found that over the next 10 years, the total economic benefit of reducing discretionary denials of inter partes review proceedings under criteria such as the NHK-Fintiv rules will lead to an increase in US business activity of $482.1 million, $230.4 million in personal income, and approximately 2,000 job-years of employment.

Source: The Perryman Group

Conversely, any activity that would reinforce or ensconce those rules or other forms of discretionary denial edicts—i.e., a continuation of current practice—could cost the U.S. economy almost $500 million. 

The report, The Potential Economic Benefits of Recent Reductions in Discretionary Denial of Inter Partes Review Based on Criteria such as the NHK-Fintiv Rules (March 2023), was commissioned by Unified Edge in part to explore the as-yet unstudied economic impact the NHK-Fintiv criteria. It researches, organizes, and provides data-backed studies and evidence to further regulatory and policy goals, and works to keep the policymakers up to date and informed on ongoing policies, data, and the regulatory landscape to move the law forward in a just, reasoned, and evidence-based way.

Read the entire report HERE.

5G vRAN with Open RAN saves 92% over LTE

Traditional LTE Radio Access Networks (RANs) are expensive because of their high usage of expensive physical components. The use of a virtualized RAN (vRAN), orchestration, and automation in 5G dramatically decreases deployment and support costs while increasing network capacity. Open RAN (O-RAN)  also allows greater flexibility in procurement decisions as equipment can be sourced from multiple vendors rather than just 1. 

These factors along with vRAN and Open RAN overall benefits incentivizes network providers to quickly deploy 5G.

Complete the form below to receive the full executive summary done by ACG Research and sponsored by Unified Patents.

The full report is available as part of membership and/or license to tools for specific Unified SEP Zones. In addition to economic reports, Unified provides a 5G and LTE landscape (OPAL) with the world’s largest human evaluated training set.

HEVC Royalty Stacking and Uncertainty Threaten VVC Adoption

IPWatchdog today published an article on the independent economic study that Unified Patents conducted with Charles River Associates on the economic value of the newly released Versatile Video Coding standard. The study points out that “[f]or VVC to capture market share among cellular device manufacturers, [its] royalty rates will have to be very attractive compared to the rates for AVC and AV1.” VVC is entering a fragmented, multi-codec market and its adoption is uncertain in the face of competitive video solutions that are subject to lower or no royalties. Much of this is due to the excessive royalties and licensing uncertainties that continue to plague VVC’s predecessor, HEVC.

Click HERE to read the full article.