This week Sisvel launched a new joint patent licensing program, offering a licence to essential CDMA2000 patents (patents for hybrid 2.5G/3G technology of mobile telecommunications standards that use CDMA, code division multiple access, a multiple access scheme for digital radio enabling the sending of data between mobile phones and cell sites) on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms”. The patents included in the program are owned by big players such as France Telecom, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, and Siemens.Sisvel, the Italian consumer electronics group, started in 1982 and today is one of the leading companies in managing IP and maximizing the value of patent rights. Sisvel will act on behalf of the patent owners as licensing administrator for the program, which is designed to make essential CDMA2000 patents more easily accessible and ensure that users can “benefit from the flexibility and practicality of the license terms available”. The royalty rate for all included functions under any license is “only US$ 0.05 per patent family per unit, up to a cap of US$ 0.50 per unit for products that include the 1x-RTT air interface but have no EV-DO functionality, and a cap of US$ 1.00 per unit for products that include the EV-DO air interface”.
More information is available here and some CDMA2000 market statistics can be found on the CDMA Development Group website here.
