## Client Landscape
PatentCloud-SEP regards 3GPP SEP stakeholders as target users. All the involved enterprise entities can be roughly categorized into three types:
### SEP Holders
These companies actively participate in 3GPP standards development and build / declare SEPs.
### SEP Implementers
These companies are followers of 3GPP standards, implementing standards into products. Some of them may also be SEP Holders or 3GPP participants.
### SEP Consulting Firms
Either SEP Holders or SEP Implementers may retain consulting firms on behalf of them to operate on SEP business (e.g., Wispro standard team).

### SEP Holder (SH)
3GPP SEP Holders can be categorized into Practicing Entities (PE) and Non-practicing Entities (NPE), depending on whether they construct patent pools via in-house R&D or from business partners.
### PE SEPs Holders (PESH)
Companies falling into this category are usually 3GPP standard participants. Generally speaking, they hire Researchers, Standardization Managers, Patent Developers as well as Portfolio Managers to involve in standard development and build corresponding SEPs.
Furthermore, PE SEP holders may also employ Monetization Managers to deal with commercialization-related issues (such as licensing), and legal Counsels, who are responsible for assertion and enforcement actions -- some of these practitioners may have served as former SEP inventors.
### NPE SEP Holders (NPESH)
These companies build patent pools and SEPs from SMEs, universities, and research institutes or having themselves retained by PESH for monetization. Generally speaking, their project teams may consist of Portfolio Managers, Monetization Managers, and legal Counsels, who are responsible for assertion and enforcement actions.
Compared to PESH, NPE SEP holders often operate on smaller budgets and scales. Therefore, its practitioners often play multiple roles at the same time.
### SEP Implementer (SI)
5G is known as the era of "Mobile Expansion" -- almost every industry can be involved in telecommunication. We can roughly divide SEP implementers into two categories:
### Telecom SEP Implementer
Telecom SEP Implementers produce SEP-related products, including end-user devices (e.g. smartphone and notebook) or telecom infrastructures (e.g. base station, switchers, along with all the components). Most of these companies are quite familiar with the telecom industry and SEP licensing concerns. A few of them are essentially SEP holders (e.g. Huawei, Nokia, and Qualcomm).
Patent counsels in such entities are mainly responsible for dealing with patent risk issues. Broadly speaking, they can be classified as either Licensing Counsels, who are hired to represent their company as SEP licensee; or Patent Counsels, who possess expertise in patent and SEP-related litigations.
### Non-telecom SEP Implementer
Non-telecom SEP Implementers are influenced by the mobile expansion trend. They are not familiar with the telecom industry and don’t have talents dedicated for SEP issues. As a consequence, these companies often retain consulting firms for collaborating SEP issues.
### SEP Consulting Firms (SCF)
Either SEP Holders or SEP Implementers may retain SEP Consulting Firms, such as Wispro Standard Team, to assist them operate on SEP-related business. Most of the practitioners in such firms are patent counsels or attorneys with telecommunication background. The roles these consulting firms play may be diverged, depending on the merits of each cooperation case. For example, they may collaborate with clients on patent prosecution, patent monetization, or solving patent disputes.

## User Landscape

### SH - Researcher
These professionals are inventors and developers who contribute to entities’ knowledge base, standardizations, products, and technology commercialization.
### SH - Standardization Manager
They strive for transforming technology on hand into universal standards. To achieve this goal, they have to actively participate in SDO’s standard development process, including proposal submission, working groups contribution, as well as attending committees.
### SH - Patent Developer
These professionals are the bridge between in-house R&D teams and patent offices. Their duty is mainly about patent prosecutions, which include invention disclosure, patentability analysis, quality review, response to official actions, and so on. Beside all these conventional patent prosecution tasks, Patent Developers in the SEP industry have to build claim charts that connect patent claims with current or future standards.
In a complex organization, some of them might serve as the process owner, who are in charge of refining the patent development system, such as internal workflows and software tools.
### SH - Portfolio Manager
Portfolio Managers in the SEP field generally focus on a specific technical specification they are in charge of. The utmost goal for them, of course, is to build up and maintain a competitive and lucrative SEP portfolio. Generally speaking, Portfolio Managers achieve this goal via effective global persecution and maintenance strategy, based on a well-thought in-house patent ranking system.
### SH - Monetization Manager
These professionals are responsible for driving revenue via licensing projects, computing rate, and leading the process of negotiation. Some of them may also serve as an account manager, maintaining business contacts and relationships for their organizations.
### SH - Licensing Counsel
These professionals are patent attorneys responsible for assertion and enforcement. SEP Holders may also retain a third-party law firm to represent them in court.
### SI - Licensing Counsel
These professionals are in-house legal counsels. They might pair with a patent engineer (or someone with technology backgrounds) in licensing and legal projects. In licensing cases, their duty is to find evidence, such as flaws in licensors’ portfolio or incomplete local coverage, to defend and negotiate a fair license for their company.