In January 2024 a new SNS JU funded project was started, called OPTI-6G (Grant Agreement number: 101139292). OPTI-6G develops an optical 6G cell free networks for significantly improved indoor communications. In addition to improved connectivity OPTI-6G will use the developed technology for the very accurate measurement of position and orientation of end user equipment. Advancements provided by OPTI-6G will be showcased in a proof-of-concept demonstrator.
The OPTI-6G project brings together a selected small, but multi-disciplinary team of research institutions and industries – including Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France; RunEL NGMT Ltd from Israel; Oledcomm SAS from France and Brunel University London from the UK under the leadership of Eurescom GmbH – to realise its ambitious goals. The project is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2026.
The start of the ESA 6G SmartSat project
Eurescom started the ESA 6G SmartSat project together with its subcontractors Airbus Germany GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG and Fraunhofer FOKUS in January 2024. 6G SmartSat focuses on beyond 5G/6G networking architectures for multi-layered non-terrestrial networks and smart satellites. In this context the project considers the concurrent trends of 5G and beyond 5G NTN, mega-constellations, re-purposable payloads and the concept of multi-layer non-terrestrial networks (ML-NTN), and will assess viable alternatives. The project is planned to conclude in the middle of 2025.
Horizon Europe INPACE project
As part of a large consortium under the leadership of G.A.C. Group France, Eurescom started a new Horizon Europe support action INPACE – Indo-Pacific-European Hub for Digital Partnerships: Trusted Digital Technologies for Sustainable Well-Being, Grant Agreement number 101135568, in January 2024. The mission of INPACE is to actively support the implementation of the EC Digital Partnerships with Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore, and the cooperation with India in the context of the Trade and Technology Council, by creating a sustainable and interactive multi-stakeholder Indo-Pacific European Hub.
INPACE covers a very wide range of technology domains, within which Eurescom is specifically responsible for the 5G and beyond and the cybersecurity domains, as well as the Digital Partnership with Japan, in collaboration with professor Akihiro Nakao from University of Tokyo. INPACE is scheduled to run for three and half years.
Patent statistics published by the European Patent Office (EPO) in March 2020 show that for the first time in more than a decade digital technologies have taken the lead in patent applications filed. According to the EPO Patent Index 2019, the surge in the fields of digital communication and computer technology is fuelling the sustained growth in patent filings: In 2019, the EPO received well over 181,000 applications in total, 4% more than in 2018 and a new all-time high. Patent applications in digital communication grew by 9.6% , driven by technologies crucial to 5G wireless networks. Digital communication overtook medical technology (+0.9% ), which had been the most patent-active technology since 2006.
With an increase of 64.6% , Chinese companies contributed most to the growth in digital communication patent applications, with US (+14.6% ) and South Korean firms (+36.1% , albeit from a smaller base) following suit. By comparison, filings from Europe grew moderately (+3.1% ). In terms of share, China, the US and Europe are now the joint leaders, each accounting for roughly a quarter of all patent applications filed with the EPO in this field. The top three applicants in 2019 were Huawei, Ericsson and Qualcomm.
The second fastest-growing field at the EPO in 2019 was computer technology (+10.2% ). Here the driving factor for growth was the increase in patent applications related to artificial intelligence, especially in the areas of machine learning and pattern recognition, image data processing and generation, and data retrieval.
US companies (+13.6% compared to 2018) accounted for nearly 40% of all patent applications in computer technology, followed by EPO member states (+9.3% ) with almost 30% of the total. Applications from China (+18.7%) made up just over 10% . The leading applicants in 2019 were Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Samsung, Huawei, Intel and Siemens. A significant proportion of the growth in 2019 also came from smaller applicants, and from new players.
Other technical fields with solid growth at the EPO in 2019 were: transport (+6.6% compared to 2018), which includes the automotive sector; electrical machinery, apparatus and energy (+5.5% ), where many inventions for clean energy technologies are filed; and pharmaceuticals (+4.4%). European companies held the largest share of patent applications in transport, measurement, organic fine chemistry and “other special machines” – an area covering a range of technologies including machine tools for various industries and 3D printing.
The technology trends were also reflected in the country data. The top five countries of origin for applications in 2019 were the US, accounting for 25% of total filings, followed by Germany (15%), Japan (12%), China (7%) and France (6%). The increase in applications at the EPO in 2019 was mainly fuelled by the strong increase in filing volumes from China (+29.2% ), the US (+5.5% ) and South Korea (+14.1%). In the past decade, patent filings from China with the EPO have increased nearly sixfold (12,247 applications in 2019 versus 2,061 in 2010). In 2019, the general upward trend in filings continued from nearly every major industrial region. Patent applications from the 38 EPO countries grew modestly (+1.1%) in 2019, the third year of increase. In relative terms, the share of patent applications from Europe continued to slide, however, falling from 51% in 2009 to 45% in 2019, as more players from outside Europe, and especially Asia, seek to protect their inventions in the European market.
Patent applications coming from the EPO member states developed stably overall, with most firms filing more patent applications than in 2018. Sweden (+8.0%) was the growth champion, boosted by increases in applications related to digital communication and computer technology. Patent filings from the UK (+6.9%) and Switzerland (+3.6%) continued to increase significantly, too, while filings from Italy advanced by +1.2% . After two consecutive years of growth the number of patent applications coming from Europe’s top filing country, Germany, remained stable (+0.5%), while France (-2.9%) and the Netherlands (-2.6%) saw decreases last year. The drop in patent filings from France was due to fewer applications in fields such as digital communication and automotive, while in the Netherlands, lower numbers of applications were filed in a number of sectors, including medical technology and biotechnology.
Among the European economies with mid-range patenting volumes, applications from Spain (+6.0%) grew solidly. Belgium (+3.2%), Austria (+2.6%), and Denmark (+0.8%) achieved similar filing levels to 2018, while patent applications from Finland fell further (-1.4%). There were also significant increases from countries with smaller patenting volumes, such as Ireland (+6.3%) and Norway (+3.6%). Portugal (+23.1%) and Greece (+15.8%) also both saw their third year of consecutive growth, albeit from a smaller base.
The company ranking also reflects the rapidly growing importance of digital technologies. Huawei topped the table of patent applicants at the EPO in 2019 with 3 524 applications. Samsung moved up to second place and LG gained a position to take third. The two South Korean firms were followed by US company United Technologies and the top applicant of 2018, Siemens at No.5. Sony is Japan’s highest ranking applicant (jumping from 11th to 9th), while Ericsson (moving up to 7th), Philips and Bosch ensure that European companies account for the majority of the applicants in the ranking: The top 10 includes four companies from Europe, two from South Korea, two from the US, and one from each of China and Japan.
A breakdown of applications originating from European countries shows that 72% of them were filed by large companies, 18% by small and medium-sized enterprises and individual inventors, and 10% by universities and public research organisations. This confirms that a significant proportion of EPO applicants are smaller entities.
On 15th October 2019, the 21 initial members of the Libra Association formally signed the Libra Association charter in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, they formalized the Libra Association council, elected the Board of Directors, and appointed members of the Libra Association executive team.
Libra is a planned digital currency, which was proposed by US social media company Facebook on 18 June 2019. The mission of Libra is to provide a simple global currency and financial infrastructure for billions of users, including those without access to the financial system. According to a World Bank report, 1.7 billion people, 31{b28ae05319d94bff0b4d65c5a9f4524dd588360f05c61ef440e1608e0a1c4144} of the global adult population, do not have access to an account at a financial institution or to mobile money. The Libra founders claim to address this problem.
The Libra will be based on blockchain technology, the Libra Blockchain. However, unlike Bitcoin, for example, Libra will not rely on cryptocurrency mining. Only members of the Libra Association will be able to process transactions via the permissioned blockchain. The evolution of the Libra Blockchain will be overseen by the Libra Association, an independent not-for-profit headquartered in Geneva. The association will be responsible for facilitating the operation of the Libra Blockchain and managing the reserve that backs the currency. The Libra Association will consist of geographically distributed and diverse businesses, nonprofit and multilateral organizations, and academic institutions.
Before the first Libra meeting, seven companies which had participated in the Libra discussions had left: Booking Holdings, eBay, Mastercard, Mercado Pago, PayPal, Stripe, and Visa Inc. Since its inception, the project has faced strong criticism. Regulators and politicians criticised that Libra could undermine national sovereignty and the functioning of the global financial system. Privacy advocates have pointed out data protection risks, which could result from Facebook’s involvement via its subsidiary Calibra.
On 23rd October 2019, the European Commission published its third annual review report on the functioning of the EU-US Privacy Shield framework, which became operational on 1st August 2016.
The Privacy Shield aims to protect the fundamental rights of anyone in the EU whose personal data is transferred for commercial purposes to certified companies in the United States. Today there are about 5,000 companies participating in this EU-US data protection framework.
Since the second annual review, there have been a number of improvements in the functioning of the framework, as well as appointments to key oversight and redress bodies, such as the Privacy Shield Ombudsperson. Among the improvements, the third review notes that the US Department of Commerce is ensuring the necessary oversight in a more systematic manner by, for example, carrying out monthly checks of a sample of companies to verify compliance with Privacy Shield principles. Enforcement action has improved with the Federal Trade Commission taking enforcement action related to the Privacy Shield in seven cases. An increasing number of EU individuals are making use of their rights under the Privacy Shield, and the relevant redress mechanisms are functioning well, according to the report.
In spite of the improvements, the Commission recommends concrete steps to better ensure the effective functioning of the Privacy Shield in practice. This includes further strengthening the certification process for companies who want to participate by shortening the time of the certification process; expanding compliance checks, including checks concerning false claims of participation in the framework; and developing additional guidance for companies related to human resources data. The Commission also expects the Federal Trade Commission to further step up its investigations into compliance with substantive requirements of the Privacy Shield and provide the Commission and the EU data protection authorities with information on ongoing investigations.
When the report was published, litigation was pending before the European Court of Justice on EU-US data transfers, which may also have an impact on the Privacy Shield.
In January 2024 a new SNS JU funded project was started, called OPTI-6G (Grant Agreement number: 101139292). OPTI-6G develops an optical 6G cell free networks for significantly improved indoor communications. In addition to improved connectivity OPTI-6G will use the developed technology for the very accurate measurement of position and orientation of end user equipment. Advancements provided by OPTI-6G will be showcased in a proof-of-concept demonstrator.
Eurescom started the ESA 6G SmartSat project together with its subcontractors Airbus Germany GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG and Fraunhofer FOKUS in January 2024. 6G SmartSat focuses on beyond 5G/6G networking architectures for multi-layered non-terrestrial networks and smart satellites. In this context the project considers the concurrent trends of 5G and beyond 5G NTN, mega-constellations, re-purposable payloads and the concept of multi-layer non-terrestrial networks (ML-NTN), and will assess viable alternatives. The project is planned to conclude in the middle of 2025.
Horizon Europe INPACE project
As part of a large consortium under the leadership of G.A.C. Group France, Eurescom started a new Horizon Europe support action INPACE – Indo-Pacific-European Hub for Digital Partnerships: Trusted Digital Technologies for Sustainable Well-Being, Grant Agreement number 101135568, in January 2024. The mission of INPACE is to actively support the implementation of the EC Digital Partnerships with Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore, and the cooperation with India in the context of the Trade and Technology Council, by creating a sustainable and interactive multi-stakeholder Indo-Pacific European Hub.
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