InterDigital

InterDigital, Inc.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: IDCC
S&P MidCap 400 index
Industry Wireless Patent monetization
Founded Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (1972)
Headquarters Wilmington, Delaware United States
Key people
 Doug Hutcheson, Chairman of the Board
William J. Merritt, President & CEO
Richard Brezski CFO
Products Mobile Research and Development
Revenue Increase US$329 million (2015)[1]
Increase US$86 million (2015)[2]
Number of employees
 Increase 330 (2016) [3]
Website www.interdigital.com

InterDigital is a mobile technology research and development company that provides wireless technologies for mobile devices, networks, and services worldwide. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on NASDAQ and is included in the S&P MidCap 400 index.

InterDigital has a portfolio of about 20,000 U.S. and foreign issued patents and patent applications. In 2012 Business Insider put them on their list of the 8 most fearsome patent trolls.[4] This allegation was rebutted by CEO, Bill Merritt, in an interview the same year with Engadget: "Traditionally, people see trolls as companies that don't do their own development, or don't have products....we have hundreds of engineers, we participate in and often chair standards committees, and we partner with leading operators, infrastructure companies and solution providers to develop and test new solutions."[5]

Corporate history

Key Dates:[6]

  • 1972: Company is incorporated as International Mobile Machines Corporation.
  • 1981: Company goes public.
  • 1992: Name is changed to InterDigital Communications Corp.
  • 1998: Alliance with Nokia is established.
  • 2003: Patent infringement suit is settled with Ericsson.
  • 2012: Moved corporate headquarters from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware.
  • 2014: Samsung and InterDigital sign a patent license agreement.[7]
  • 2016: InterDigital signs license agreements with Apple and Huawei.[8]
  • 2016: InterDigital acquires sensor processing technology pioneer Hillcrest Labs.[9]

Research Areas

The company is primarily focused on advanced wireless (5G) and Internet of Things (IoT) research:

  • Xhaul: InterDigital is part of a consortium of companies and academics working together to develop an adaptive, sharable, cost-efficient solution integrating the fronthaul and backhaul segments of the future 5G transport network.[10]
  • Horizon 2020 POINT: POINT (iP Over IcN– the betTer IP) aims to develop technology, innovations and business value chains for commercially viable IP-over-ICN deployment. The POINT project consists of nine partners (both academic and industrial) from five EU countries.[11]
  • RIFE: Project RIFE uses advanced networking technology to address the challenge of providing affordable internet access by increasing the efficiency of the underlying transport networks and the involved architectures and protocols. The project consortium includes 7 partners that include Martel Consulting, Aalto University, University of Cambridge, Thales, Avanti, guifi.net and InterDigital Europe.[12]
  • 5G Socioeconomic Study: InterDigital along with Tech4i2, Trinity College Dublin and Real Wireless has been commissioned to develop a socio-economic data study launched by the European Commission.[13]
  • oneM2M: In 2015, InterDigital Labs participated in joint testing to verify multi-vendor interoperability of the oneM2M standard with other participants that include Cisco, HERIT, Huawei, KETI, Ricoh and Qualcomm.[14]

Patent Holdings

According to research by Wiseharbor Research, a technology IP research firm, InterDigital Technology Corp. and InterDigital Patent Holdings held 282 declared essential LTE patents and 155 declared essential LTE patents respectively. The report also shows other mobile SEP owner-licensors such as Ericsson (146 declared essential LTE patents), Qualcomm (350 declared essential LTE patents), Nokia (142 declared essential LTE patents) and Huawei (182 declared essential LTE patents).[15]

Major Licensees

In June 2014 Samsung and Interdigital entered into a patent license agreement that "resolves all pending litigation between the two companies".[16] The agreement is cited at being worth just under $500million.[17]

William J. Merritt, president and CEO of InterDigital said in a statement: “We are very happy to have resolved the licensing dispute with Samsung on mutually agreeable terms. This agreement with Samsung shows how our longstanding patent licensing framework and process can lead to effective, productive discussions and eventual resolution on fair and reasonable terms”.[18]

In September 2016, InterDigital signed a license agreement with Huawei, and the companies agreed to "a framework for discussions regarding joint research and development efforts."[19]

In December 2016, Apple and InterDigital entered into a multi-year license agreement.[20]

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. William J. Merritt, has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of InterDigital, Inc. since May 2, 2005. Mr. Merritt serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of InterDigital Communications, LLC.

He served as President of InterDigital Technology Corporation from July 2001 to January 2008. Mr. Merritt served as General Patent Counsel of InterDigital Inc., from July 2001 to May 2005 and also served as President of ITC since July 2001. Mr. Merritt served as an Executive Vice President of InterDigital Inc. from September 1999 to January 2004. Prior to that, Mr. Merritt served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from October 1998 to July 2001 and Vice President, Legal and Assistant Secretary from January 1996 to October 1998. He has been a Director of Shared Spectrum Company since February 2014 and InterDigital, Inc.[21]

Locations

InterDigital is headquartered in Wilmington Delaware, and has R&D offices in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, Melville New York, and San Diego, California in the United States, London, The United Kingdom and Montreal, Quebec in Canada. In 2015 InterDigital expanded and opened an office in Seoul, South Korea. In 2018, another office is opened in Berlin, Germany.

Defense, Surveilliance, and Lobbying

Interdigital engages Lloyd Hand in DC as its registered lobbyist, spending $90,000 per quarter on retainer.[22] Hand's works focuses on security and defense contract negotiation and advising foreign governments on international trade.[23]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Tech's 8 Most Fearsome 'Patent Trolls'". 2012-11-25. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
  5. ↑ https://www.engadget.com/2012/06/14/interdigital-bill-merritt-interview
  6. ↑ "International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.61. St. James Press, 2004".
  7. ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/03/samsung-interdigital-patents/
  8. ↑ http://seekingalpha.com/news/3230828-interdigital-announces-patent-license-agreement-apple
  9. ↑ http://hillcrestlabs.com/interdigital-announces-acquisition-of-sensor-processing-technology-pioneer-hillcrest-labs/
  10. ↑ http://5g-ppp.eu/5g-xhaul/
  11. ↑ https://www.point-h2020.eu/
  12. ↑ https://rife-project.eu/
  13. ↑ https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/news/identification-and-quantification-key-socio-economic-data-strategic-planning-5g-introduction
  14. ↑ http://ir.interdigital.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=931424
  15. ↑ http://www.wiseharbor.com/pdfs/Mallinson%20on%20cumulative%20mobile%20SEP%20royalties%20for%20IP%20Finance%202015Aug19.pdf
  16. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/interdigital-enters-patent-license-agreement-with-samsung-1401794394
  17. ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/03/samsung-interdigital-patents/
  18. ↑ http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2348207/samsung-and-interdigital-reach-patent-accord
  19. ↑ https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/09/06/869694/0/en/InterDigital-and-Huawei-Sign-Multi-Year-Patent-License-Agreement-for-3G-and-4G-Terminal-Units.html
  20. ↑ http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/InterDigital+(IDCC)+Enters+Patent+License+Agreement+With+Apple+(AAPL)/12345712.html
  21. ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=280912&privcapId=280910
  22. ↑ http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldsearch.aspx. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  23. ↑ https://www.kslaw.com/people/handler. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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