Researchers and Patents
Inventors of the Year
This is the seventh time Siemens has honored 12 Inventors of the Year. Altogether, these innovative minds have created more than 360 inventions ranging from automotive electronics to medical systems; from optical networks to computational neuroscience. The locations where these inventors work—Austria, Germany, the UK, the U.S. and Canada—reflect the extent to which Siemens is a global network of innovation. We are pleased to take this opportunity to introduce two inventors in this issue's featured fields— robotics and the Internet.
Modeling the Brain
The human brain is increasingly serving as a role model for technical systems. Gustavo Decois an expert in this area.
What exactly is happening in the mind of a person who is focusing intently on a particular object within a very complex environment? Which portions of the brain are interacting, and what processes are occurring? Such are the questions that preoccupy Dr. Gustavo Deco at Siemens' research laboratories in Munich, Germany (see article Can We Build Intelligent Machines?). He has developed a model based on a comprehensive theory that makes it possible for the first time to study the brain at all three levels of neuroscience—psychology, neurophysiology and neurobiology. Deco's goal is to transfer human characteristics and capabilities to applications in medicine and technology, or at least to imitate them. As a case in point, Deco's research could contribute materially to improvements in robots' visual perception, to the design of powerful video monitoring systems, to improved interpretation of magnetic resonance tomography images, and to optimizing automotive navigation systems that can very rapidly and accurately recognize highway edge lines and other road markings or obstacles.
Gustavo Deco wants to develop technical systems that can process information just as efficiently as their biological counterparts
On the Road to the Petabit Router
If Internet traffic continues to grow at the current rate, it will soon be necessary to manage data flows of several terabits (1012 bit) or even petabits (1015 bit) per second. John Mansbridge is developing the equipment to do just that.
At Roke Manor Research a Siemens business in the UK, John Mansbridge has developed a technology that makes it possible to manage incredible volumes of data with a minimum of hardware. The RipCore LightBus needs only 14 glass fibers to interconnect more than 100 transmission and receiving units in order to produce a total processing capacity of more than five terabits per second. A router that uses this technology and serves as a kind of switching system for the dataflows of the Internet requires less than one-fourth of the space needed by comparable systems and uses less than half as much power.
LightBus architecture can be scaled up to 1.3 Pbit/s (1,300 Tbit/s), thus making it possible to expand capacity step-by-step in line with changing needs—cost-efficiently and without maintenance downtime. For more, see Building the Unlimited Expressway.
Fiber optic cables define his world. John Mansbridge designs systems for tomorrow's Internet
Licenses in the Bag
Negotiating patent licenses on the international market takes nerves of steel, negotiation skills, prudence and a clear understanding of your company's strengths and weaknesses.
When Dieter Reinhardt crams hefty files into his briefcases—as he's done so often in recent years— he can be sure of one thing: the trip won't be boring. As chief negotiator and manager of the Siemens License Center, he conducts licensing negotiations with companies around the globe. Often this involves delving into the smallest details, and it's not uncommon to spend days arguing over this or that passage in a patent. Particularly difficult are negotiations concerning the issuing of licenses related to new standards—like the UMTS standard in mobile communications—when each tenth of a percent in royalties amounts to millions of dollars. What's more, those kinds of patents may be of interest to ten or more companies. This leads to an odyssey of negotiations spanning several continents that may last several years.
Dieter Reinhardt, head of the Siemens License Center, is a master negotiator
"Some licensing negotiations resemble a Middle Eastern bazaar," says Reinhardt as he describes these marathon meetings. "In addition to meticulous attention to detail, they also require imagination and a thorough knowledge of all the technology Siemens has to offer." In many cases the whole issue turns out to hinge on a patent belonging to an entirely different Siemens Group. For example, a Siemens patent related to defense technology that reduces transmission power during transmission pauses—to prevent the transmitter from being localized—played a crucial role later in the development of mobile communication standards. It helped to reduce battery usage. "Tracking down that sort of thing is ultimately what makes our work interesting," asserts Reinhardt, who passionately disagrees with those who consider this sort of work boring. And since there's always an interest in recruiting highly qualified new talent, another fact should not be overlooked. "Because of the required double-track education, our job also pays well," he points out. But even the sharpest patent lawyers don't have to know it all. They're supported by a globally accessible database that documents the progress of all patent activities and contains information about all patents available to Siemens.
Hartmut Runge
One of the World's Largest Patent Law Firms
With more than 220 patent specialists—nine of them in the License Center—Siemens' Intellectual Property Department ranks among the world's largest patent law firms. The department has a very respectable track record in licensing patents. Since the License Center was established in 1999, well over 100 licensing projects have been started. Twenty of these have already been successfully concluded. About 80 are in various stages of contacting potential licensees, negotiations, preparing contracts and preparing lawsuits. The department's experts predict that in a few years the annual volume of licensing agreements will be in the hundreds of millions of euros.
Patent license fees are growing on a global scale. In the U.S. alone, their current level of $150 billion is fifty times larger than it was 20 years ago. But associated revenues are often accompanied by legal strife. In the U.S., for instance, the number of patent lawsuits has increased by about 8 % annually in recent years, to 2,400 in 2000. The number of licensing agreements reached without legal disputes can be assumed to be a multiple of this figure. Siemens has not been exempt from this trend—the number of patent disputes in which the company is involved has doubled to 160 in the last ten years