By Joseph A. Alfred

Steve Jobs and Apple introduced the iPhone, the first smartphone, in January 2007, and a waiting world was introduced to incredible volume both in standards and in patents. Global data usage now exceeds one billion gigabytes a month and half of all mobile devices are smartphones. The growth in mobile standards from the first generation in the 1980s to the development of the fifth generation today has witnessed an amazing array of technology, one release will capture the public interest only to be replaced within a short span of time by a new technology, more useful, more ubiquitous than the last one. The key question for discussion in today’s world of standards and patents is how to license the standards essential patents for the smartphone at a fair price.