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When one ponders the future of transportation, a number of things often spring to mind: electric and autonomous vehicles, “last mile” mobility solutions and perhaps even flying taxis. But, despite Doc’s assertion that by 2015 we wouldn’t need roads, flying cars are still in the realm of science fiction, if only just. Furthermore, even if services such as Uber’s flying taxi service Uber Elevate do take off, they will not be able to transport heavy goods or the same volume of passengers as cars, lorries and buses.
So, the road is going no-where soon, but it is getting an upgrade. One of the first forms of communication network, the road has linked communities since the dawn of time, with the addition of modern wireless communication technology the road is evolving to become the smart road.
Smart roads will encompass an array of different technologies – for instance, internet of things (IoT) capabilities will see vehicles talking to vehicles (V2V) to maintain safe distances. Vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) will be used to understand traffic flows and manage congestion. Ultimately vehicle to everything technology (V2X) provides for a world where cars will “see” pedestrians and either brake or swerve to avoid accidents without the driver being involved. Beyond the vehicles themselves, smart roads may also incorporate dynamic charging coils to provide power to EVs travelling on the roads and intelligent lighting or signage options capable of alerting drivers to changing road conditions. What is clear is that smart roads are going to need to integrate a plethora of technologies.
Smart roads will be expected to provide universal connectivity for communicating with a large variety of other connected devices, including vehicles, infrastructure, and even pedestrians. Such connectivity requires the development and sharing of standards, as seen in the telecommunications sector for things like mobile networks (indeed, many smart road features are based on 5G connectivity). Patents allow contributors to these standards to assert their contribution to the standard and be rewarded for it. This is frequently done using what are called standard essential patents, or SEPs.
SEPs are patents that define inventions that must be implemented to meet the standard. By defining these required inventions, the owners can ensure that users of the standard will pay them a fair price for their invention. On the other hand, users of the standard can rest assured that they are free to use the standard paying patent royalties that are fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND). In this manner, far from preventing the adoption of technology due to competing patent rights, patents act as a helpful guide to ensure that contributors to and users of, a standard both get a fair deal.
Additionally, smart road development often requires input from a number of companies and entities across many different sectors both public and private, including both those with a history in traditional highways as well as tech companies and start-ups newer to the sector. Despite patents being intended initially to create monopoly rights, patents can actually facilitate collaboration by providing a mechanism for each party to clearly define the independent contributions they have made when entering into the collaboration.
This is because patents carefully define inventions and can be licensed between parties in line with well established principles. Know-how, trade secrets, and confidential information are much harder to define and protect. Furthermore, once a trade secret is out in the open, it can be very hard or impossible to stop it from being used. Meanwhile, patents, once filed, allow an invention to be freely disclosed without losing control of it.
Patents, therefore, can be expected to be important in the development and adoption of smart roads. Indeed, the roll out of smart road technologies has begun and patented products are already playing an important role. For example, patented radar systems have been deployed around the M25 to rapidly and accurately detect stopped vehicles. Based on this information, lanes can be closed and speed limits adjusted to both reduce the risk of collision with the stopped vehicle as well as keep traffic flowing around the stopped vehicle, minimising the impact to other drivers.
Given the often public nature of the testing of smart road technologies, it is important that patent protection is considered at an early stage in development before the testing phase.
The Future of Smart Road Infrastructure (intel.co.uk)
Intelligent Road Infrastructure eBook
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By Paul Loustalan, Partner at Reddie & Grose LLP - a firm of patent, trade mark and design attorneys
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