After a number of years at the
University of Illinois, in 1994 Carles Puente Baliarda joined the
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) as Assistant Professor to
continue his research on fractal-shaped antennae. Puente Baliarda very
quickly became aware of the potential of this technology from a
commercial point of view, and in 1995, while still at the UPC, he
decided to file a patent application with the Spanish Patent Office.
This application led to the first patent for a fractal antenna worldwide
(ES2112163B1). A second Spanish patent (ES2142280B1) followed in 1998.
Together
with Rubén Bonet, in 1999 he co-founded Fractus, S.A. as a spin-off
from the UPC. With a Master’s in business administration from IESE
Business School, Bonet provided the ideal complement to Puente
Baliarda’s research background. In the same year, Fractus filed a patent
application (WO01/22528A1) for a multi-level antenna which led to
several patents worldwide, including the USA and Europe. A patent
application for space-filling antennae (WO01/54225A1) followed in 2000.
These patents became a third-generation evolution of the original
fractal-shaped antennae, overcoming certain technical limitations caused
by the pure fractal shape, and making them ripe for commercial
application.
Soon Fractus had its first contract to develop a
dual-band fractal antenna capable of operating on a second-generation
(2G) cellular network. The antenna was compact enough to be built into a
phone’s body and operate within the two major digital systems used
across Europe: the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
standard, developed by the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute for use in the European Union, and the Digital Cellular
Service (DCS) for use in the United Kingdom.
Questions:
Who do you think owned the IP rights for the different inventions?
Did FRACTUS have the right to use the inventions?
What steps would you have followed after this?
Technical Background
The frequency range at which an antenna emits is proportional to its size, while the radiation properties of the antenna (e.g. the direction in which it emits) are determined by its geometrical shape.
Examples:
- GSM (2G) mobile phones (approx. 00 MHz) → typical length: 7,5 cm
- Radio FM antennae (approx. 90 MHz) → typical length: 0,75 m
For this reason, short and stubby antennae were a
fixture on early mobile phones, visibly protruding several centimetres from the
phones’ bodies – a limiting factor for slimming down the size and shape of the
first generation of mobile phones.
A fractal is a mathematical concept which can be used to describe a structure which is self-similar, meaning that the structure is formed by repetitions of its geometrical shape at smaller scales. Thanks to this property, fractal structures allow multiple long paths to be compacted in a small and contained area.
Fig. 1: Repetition of triangle at smaller scales (Sierpinski triangle with 7 scales). [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski-Dreieck]
Fig. 2 Long paths in a small and contained area (Sierpinski triangle). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle]
From
the antenna theory point of view, repetition of its geometrical shape at
different scales would imply the same radiation properties at different
frequencies, and compacting long paths in a small and contained area would
reduce the size of the antenna for a given frequency range. By using these two
properties of fractals, Puente Baliarda found that it was possible to design
antennae which could be used to operate at different frequency ranges and would
be small enough to fit into the body of a mobile phone without sacrificing
function.