SEP Analysis for Licensing, FRAND, Litigation & New-Standard Portfolio Reviews
GreyB examines claim-to-standard alignment and supporting evidence before licensing discussions, litigation, pool submissions, or portfolio decisions.
150+
SEP engagements in 2026
25+
Standards & releases covered
450,000+
Patents screened
1,050+
Claim charts prepared
70,000+
Analyst hours invested
Track SEP Ownership Across Standards
GreyB’s SEP reports combine declaration data, patent-family analysis, essentiality assessment, and technical mapping to show which portfolios carry meaningful standard coverage, who controls them, and where technical overlap exists.
Which 5G SEPs actually map to real-world products?
Declared ownership alone does not show where a patent is implemented. This analysis connects 5G SEP portfolios with features used across smartphones, automotive, IoT, and NTN.
100,000+
Declared 5G patent families assessed across the landscape
44.65%
Average mapping to features implemented within specific product categories
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28.7%
Foundational features with relevance across multiple industries
Analysis covered: SEP implementation across smartphones, automotive, IoT, and NTN, including which patent families map to product features and where implementation differs by industry.
Which Wi-Fi 7 patents actually matter?
4,000+
1,697
300+
Does your existing video IP already cover AV2?
4
8
2026
Beyond the Major Standards
Analysis across additional standards and client-supplied specifications, including EVS, Bluetooth, Qi, RISC-V, JTAG, and Khronos.
Bring your standard
Work with client-supplied specifications.
Clause-level review
Check claims against specific requirements.
Custom analysis
Focus on owners, features, or implementations.
Analysis can cover: essentiality, implementation evidence, contribution history, portfolio share, and other client-defined questions.
Evidence That Has Reached the Courtroom
GreyB’s 5G essentiality research has been cited in Chinese court decisions involving SEP ownership and FRAND royalty rates.
The same depth of evidence used to examine SEP ownership and essentiality can support licensing negotiations, FRAND analysis, and litigation strategy.
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OPPO v. Nokia
GreyB 5G essentiality data was referenced in the Chongqing court’s FRAND royalty-rate decision.
ZTE v. Samsung
IAM on GreyB's 5G Essentiality Study
Essentiality analysis put out by Amplified and GreyB
SEP Analysis for Licensing, Litigation, and Portfolio Decisions
Find Patents Worth Licensing
GreyB screens the offered portfolio and identifies the patents that warrant deeper technical and licensing review.
Establish Essentiality
Determine whether the claim maps to mandatory requirements of the relevant standard. Missing elements, optional features, inferential mappings, and differences across standard versions are identified.
Assess Patent Strength
Evaluate validity robustness: claim scope, priority support, prosecution history, prior-art exposure, legal status, and remaining term.
Verify Implementation
Assess whether the patented features are implemented in relevant products and deployments. Technical evidence, implementation variations, and the feasibility of proving infringement are identified.
What you receive:
Build the Portfolio for Licensing
GreyB screens the portfolio, identifies stronger SEP candidates, and develops the evidence needed to take selected patents into licensing discussions.
Find the Strongest SEP Candidates
Potential SEPs and standard implementation patents are identified across the portfolio.
Measure Portfolio Position
Owner share, technical contribution, and portfolio concentration are reviewed.
Map the Essentiality Spectrum
Essentiality gaps, expiry, jurisdiction spread, and implementation relevance are recorded.
Build Claim-level Evidence
The strongest families receive element-by-element claim-to-standard mapping.
Pool Submission and Evidence of Use
Pool charts, evidence of use, and licensing-ready family packages are prepared.
What you receive:
Build the Technical Case
GreyB traces the patent, standard, and prosecution record to identify where the essentiality position is strong, weak, or open to challenge.
Test Essentiality and Non-essentiality
Each claim limitation is checked against the cited standard.
Reconstruct the Standard History
Technical contributions, change requests, and meeting dates are traced.
Trace Prosecution History
File history is reviewed where claim interpretation depends on amendments or argument.
Invalidity Contentions and IPR Support
Prior art, disclosure metrics, and standard submissions are mapped to claim limitations.
Build Case-Format Claim Charts
Charts are delivered in the law firm's required Word, PowerPoint, or internal format.
What you receive:
Essentiality or non-essentiality charts, TDoc history, disclosure metrics, invalidity contentions support, rebuttal charts, and contextual standard summaries.
Test an SEP Portfolio Before Acquisition
GreyB examines essentiality, ownership, legal status, standards alignment, and seller evidence to show which assets carry technical value and which need further scrutiny.
Screen the Full Portfolio
SEP and non-SEP assets are routed by technology and standards relevance.
Essentiality Screening
Likely essential candidates are separated from low-alignment assets.
Check Ownership and Legal Status
Ownership, expiry, estoppels, licences, and remaining term are recorded.
Claim-to-Standard Drift
Claims are checked against current and earlier standard releases.
Assess the Seller's Position
Technical coverage, evidence of use, claim complexity, and litigation readiness are summarized.
What you receive:
Built into every SEP review
Screen first, then map deeply
AI screening is followed by detailed manual claim charting.
Check the right standard version
Mappings are checked against the patent priority and cited release.
Separate required from optional
Mandatory requirements are distinguished from supplemental text.
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Delivered in your working format
Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and proprietary templates are supported.
Expertise that Strengthens SEP analysis
Rohit Sood
Group Manager, 13+ years' experience
Expertise: Video Streaming, Messengers, Navigation, WLAN, NFC, RFID, Multimedia, Semiconductors, Telecommunications, and more…
Highlights: thoughts fueled a Bloomberg article (“In Tech Race With China, U.S. Universities May Lose a Vital Edge”); flagged IBM’s drone patent as an acquisition target in March 2021 (DoorDash acquired it in Oct 2021); inventor of US10242076B2 (document-matching optimization).
Aman Kumar
Group Manager, 11+ years' experience
Expertise: 5G and 6G technologies, Wi-Fi standards, IoT, V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communications, video coding standards, and more…
Highlights: Authored GreyB’s 5G SEP report (2020 and 2021 editions), the same report cited by the USPTO, which names him directly in its footnotes; leads a 25+ person IP expert team; regularly publishes on SEP acquisition strategy and improving patent-pool submission odds.
Swapnajeet Nayak
Manager, 9+ years' experience
Expertise: LTE/5G, Video Codecs (VVC, HEVC, MPEG), Wi-Fi, NAS/SAN, VM/Hypervisors, RAN Architecture, and more…
Highlights: Authored GreyB’s 5G SEP report (2025 edition), strategy pieces published on GreyB’s blog (“Philip’s IP Strategy,” “Newracom’s Wi-Fi 6 Patent Portfolio: A Dive Into Unacquired Assets & Their Potential”); IEEE research contribution on microstrip patch antennas.
Claim Charts that Show Exactly Where the Patent Meets the Standard
Each claim limitation is mapped to the relevant standard specification or product feature. The chart records the cited clause, standard version, normative or supplemental status, analyst explanation, and essentiality verdict.
Claim limitation
Standard section
Analyst mapping
Verdict
Receiving control information that identifies a configured transmission resource.
3GPP TS [Section Placeholder]
The normative text requires signalling of the configured resource before transmission.
Available/Inferentially Available
Applying a two-stage determination before selecting the resource.
3GPP TS [Section Placeholder]
The first stage is disclosed. The second stage appears only in supplemental or optional text.
Partially Available
Using the selected resource under every compliant implementation.
No normative text identified
The cited section permits the feature but does not require implementation.
Missing
Built into every claim chart
- Claim limitation and claim construction note
- Exact standard section and quoted text
- Normative, supplemental, optional, or absent status
- Standard-version discrepancy
- Prosecution history note when required
- Analyst verdict and second-level review
Essential
PowerPoint
Excel
Client Template
Screen Large Portfolios for SEP Candidates
Speed up licensing negotiations, SEP mining, and SEP claim drafting with GreyB’s SEP Mapping Tool. Give it a drafted or issued patent claim and a set of standard specifications. It produces a claim chart showing whether the claim maps to the standard.
Claim-to-standard mapping at scale
Limitation by limitation analysis
See evidence and explanations showing where the standard aligns with or differs from each claim limitation.
Evidence-backed mapping
Each mapping includes detailed references to the relevant specifications, sections, and page numbers.
Bring your own standard
Upload any specific version, draft, or standard you want the claims analyzed against.
Review-ready output
Claim charts designed for human review: just the right amount of evidence to verify the mapping without overwhelming the reviewer.
15-20 minutes
to process a patent, with up to 20 patents analyzed in parallel
3-5 hours
of expert review time saved per SEP check
* Exact analysis time varies with claim length, number of specifications analyzed, and technical complexity. AI-generated mappings are intended to support human review and do not constitute a legal conclusion.
SEP Analysis in Practice
Portfolio screening, claim charts, and technical analysis across licensing and litigation matters.
93 families screened before technical discussions
GreyB screened 93 families and reviewed the shortlisted patents for weak claim-to-standard alignment, multiple standard releases, and missing mappings.
What this changed:
Technical discussions focused on the patents with the strongest issues, rather than reviewing the entire portfolio.
The review helped us focus our technical discussions on the patents that needed the most attention.
Maya Chen
Director, Patent Licensing | Global Technology Company
30 to 50 additional claim charts requested
What this changed:
The initial work was followed by a request for another 30–50 charts, with the same workflow extended across the larger portfolio.
The standard paragraphs were identified quickly, and the contextual explanation supported legal review.
Daniel Wong
IP Litigation Counsel | Global Technology Company
100 additional 4G and 5G charts approved
GreyB converted US-to-EP claim charts, separated essential and non-essential cases, and reviewed gaps across the portfolio.
What this changed:
The initial charts were accepted, followed by approval for 50 4G and 50 5G charts.
The charts were clear, and the essentiality results were stronger than we initially expected.
Michael
Head of Patent Monetization | Global Connectivity Company
Government, Economic, and IP References
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Charles River Associates
IEEE Communications Society
Wider IP Community
Trusted Resources
See What the SEP Analysis can Uncover
Scope the analysis around the standard, portfolio, and matter at hand.
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- Separate strong claim-to-standard alignment from weak or overstated mappings.
- Find patents and families with stronger potential for licensing discussions.
- Identify weak mappings, missing claim elements, and standard-version issues.
- Build technical evidence around essentiality, non-essentiality, and claim interpretation.
- Evaluate assets for licensing, acquisition, divestment, pool submission, or further charting.