With the advancement in cable-free connectivity, the world has gradually transitioned from wired to wireless products. A new variant of earphones – True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earphones that use bluetooth signals to transfer sound are fast dominating the consumer market. If we trace back the history of these earphones, we notice that the first true wireless earphones (W800 BT) were developed by the Japanese brand - Onkyo back in 2015.
However, it was Apple that revolutionized the true wireless earphone era in 2016 by releasing first generation AirPods and removing the AUX port (iPhone 7 onwards). While the TWS earphones are gaining popularity due to their wireless connectivity and good audio quality, this technology has not reached its full potential yet. As a result, it is anticipated to witness research in terms of improving noise cancellation, low battery life, range, sound quality, and product fit.
The following article from Sagacious IP - A global Intellectual Property Research and consulting firm, discusses the market trends and complete patent landscape of TWS earphones and the associated technology to enable companies to identify the white spaces and new application areas.
TWS Earphones - Market Trend
TWS earphones are rapidly gaining popularity among the consumers owing to the benefits they offer. As per a market research report, the global True Wireless Headphone market size is predicted to reach USD 18 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of nearly 20% during the period 2021-2026. An increase in use of smartphones for day-to-day activities, using multiple portable devices (wirelessly connected to each other or to smartphone), as well as growing focus on sports and fitness activities, are some of the main factors driving the growth of the true wireless headphone market.
Key Market Players of TWS Earphones
Now that you are aware of the overall market scenario of TWS earphones, let us discuss some of the leading companies that are manufacturing these products.
The above analysis emphasizes on the second-generation TWS earphones that have witnessed improved battery life, active noise cancellation, and better comfort and fit. The future generation TWS earphones aim to integrate earphones with artificial intelligence (AI) that can be beneficial for automatic controls without the need for user interaction or medical data measurements and also for better battery life and sound quality.
Brand Preference
When it comes to TWS earphones, the brands preferred by consumers vary. Figure 1 (below) depicts the leading hearable manufacturing companies based on consumer brand preference, as well as their key drivers in the United States (data from Counterpoint Research study). As per the data, Apple is the most preferred hearable brand as Airpods provide more comfort, better fit and sound quality as compared to other companies. Besides Apple, other companies leading the hearables’ market include Sony, Samsung, BOSE, and Beats.
Fig. 1: Company Rankings based on Brand Preference (based on a study conducted in 2019)
Fig. 2: Key Drivers of Apple and Bose Hearables
Sagacious IP’s Research on Top Companies with TWS-related Patents
In order to understand the current patent-related scenario of TWS earphones market, Sagacious IP mined TWS-related patents. The company’s research found that technology giants such as Apple, Oticon, Bose, Dolby, and Sony are leading the patent filing race, with maximum ultra-wideband (UWB) patents filed since 2000 till date. Graph 1 (below) shows the leading TWS technology patent filers. As per this graph, Bose bagged the top spot for filing 355 TWS-related patent families, followed by Apple at 331, and Oticon at 314 (only alive patent families were considered).
Graph 1: Top Companies with Respective Patent Family Count (2000-2021)
Priority Year-Wise Patent Distribution
Besides, the overall patent filings by companies leading the TWS technology market (Graph 1 above), our research also reveals how the filings have increased in the recent years (see Graph 2).
Graph 2: Priority Year-Wise Distribution of TWS-related Patent Families
Note: The data for 2020 and 2021 may not be accurate since most of the patent applications might not be published yet. This is because the patent office takes nearly 18 months to publish a patent application.
Jurisdiction-Wise Patent Filings
According to Sagacious IP’s internal research, the U.S. appears to be the jurisdiction with the highest share (more than 10,000 patent families) of patent filings in the TWS domain. The country is followed by Europe (over 5,000 patent families), and China (over 4,000 patent families).
Fig. 3: Jurisdiction-wise Distribution of TWS-related Patent Filings
Sagacious IP’s Automated Ranking of TWS Patents
Beisdes mining the TWS-related patents, Sagacious IP also performed an automated patent ranking of the patents mined using several Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) and keyword based strategies. We assigned scores to the patents to indicate where the patents stood with respect to other patents of the same category. The parameters that were considered for the ranking are mentioned below:
The below snapshot depicts the number of top patents for 10 exemplary companies.
Table 1: Top Patent Assignees (2000-2021) based on Sagacious IP’s Automated Ranking Tool
‘TWS Hearables’ Related Infringement Cases
Patent infringement cases are a common occurrence in every domain and the ‘TWS hearables’ domain is no different. Since Apple’s AirPods in the TWS hearables domain are quite popular among the users, most infringement lawsuits are filed against the company. The features that are usually targeted in the infringement cases include the wireless connection between earphones and devices, charging case, and bluetooth compliance. To give you an idea about the TWS hearables related infringement cases, we have discussed some of the major ones below:
Koss Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in July 2020. As per the series of complaints filed by Koss with the West Texas court, Apple’s AirPods and products manufactured by Bose Corp., Skullcandy Inc., Plantronics Inc., and JLab Audio allegedly infringed its wireless headphone patents.
GUI Global Products, Ltd., (Gwee) filed separate suits against Apple and Samsung in July 2020. In Apple’s case, the charging case technology was targeted while Samsung’s infringement case covered both earbuds and charging cases.
Apple has been indicted by One-E-Way for infringement of two of their patents in July 2020. The complainant claims that Apple's Bluetooth compatible wireless (audio) products such as AirPods, AirPods Pro, HomePod, and Beats headphones infringe on their patents. The patented inventions are related to private listening and interference addressing features of bluetooth compliant devices.
Conclusion
The TWS technology requires a detailed patent landscape study to identify the white spaces and new application areas. It is imperative to perform a detailed patent landscape study and companies need assistance from seasoned patent practitioners who have technical backgrounds and experience in conducting comprehensive patent landscape analysis.
Sagacious IP’s Patent Landscape Analysis Service enables organizations to assess how a technology or a particular industry is evolving. Our team of 300+ techno-legal professionals is adept at providing an overview and analysis of patent information, and thus allowing businesses to leverage patent landscape data to formulate their patent strategy.