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Wanda, that is one way to evaluate it. Nokia has been pushing your method to evaluate contributions solely on number of patents.
Many argue that it is a too simple of an approach and does not take into account the quality or utility value of the patents with respect to what is gained by their use. Also, even the definition of essential is being feircely contended, and Nokia and many operators are trying to limit the scope of what would be considered essential within the standards.
The standards body ETSI has a section that defines essential, but it has been going through the courts as to how broadly that definition may be interpreted.
If a patent gets accepted into the standard, but it could be alternatively worked around - does that become essential if it was accepted into the standard? versus, it made it into the standard because there is no other way to work around it.
Many on this board know much more than I do about this, and patents themselves have various classifications (system patent, method patents, etc., so it all goes over my head rather quickly.
If he has an agenda that is not going to be putting a positive spin on IDCC,it would be wasted time to give him a bunch more amunition he can use to spin to the dark side. To me it's better to leave him be because anyone who is following this knows he doesn't have a clue right now - why smarten him up enough to write a negative article that could actually do real damage to the investors. Right now his ignorance is bliss and there is little or no harm done.
ot PLUMEAR
Please disregard my could go on and on phrase...I actually appreciated your post and felt that my own was a bit short ( no bad intentions)...I was in the middle of a longer post, and I thought I accidentally sent it midway through...and that was my follow-on, as I was rambling anyway. I guess I just lost it...and I'm going back to lurking. Have a good day - Wanda too!
sorry, could go on and on...
Wanda002, there are quite a few folks that would agree that with thousands of patents, we should see if the court is our friend rather than settling for a pittance. However, it's a very risky game, and we have to trust our management and lawyers together to play that game best, and it you don't feel good about how they are doing at it you should not own the stock.
Chartex, I have to agree, falling somewhere near the novice or "experience loser" category, and today - even I have noticed the extraordinarily tight trading range that smells of price manipulation.
Paheka, I was just wondering what logic leads one to such an irrational conclusion Hope ya don't mind me funning around a little
The must have realized there was a fly on the wall during the Nokia discussions...named Rooster.
Nicmar, what a surprise! Great to see you kickin it up!
I can't wait. Miracles do happen, as a matter of fact, I could swear DMILLER posted something positive just a few minutes ago
I had the same perception, but also the notion that IDCC at that time was playing on the fears and distrust between Sammy and Nokia - let's face it - they are not friends coming together to face a common enemy, but enemies coming together to face a common enemy and IDCC by leaving it open could divide the camps and play the who's gonna rat the other guy out first game. It may be that you were right at that time, and finally events are coming together for them to be able to truthfully play turnabout to wrap matters up on both sides. Might as well be optimistic.
Yes, he needs to bone up on the facts, but it's nice there is chatter like this floating around...
Since we've already been put on CNBC spotlight - think of the coverage we WILL BE getting over this gap-up, and development! Move volume to come - shorts will be crushed.
Re: Jiff, thanks
I must have been mistaken about the reference to these issues being resolved under the laws that prevail in each country. I originally thought there was some mention of that topic in a communication from the ETSI.
Didn't ETSI come out with a public statement specifically addressing what it viewed as it's legal limitations regarding French Law? And basically said the were not the ones determining FRAND rates and the laws of the respective governments would prevail in this determination - my own paraphrase - It was posted on IHUB months ago, if anyone can reference this post, it would be a good statement to review at this point.
Just think of how badly the shorts could get hammered if they start buying back shares heavily, leading up to news of a big fish licensed or a settlement.
Spider69
That is an excellent point on diversification. That's why I think that rewards such as stock options or RSUs, compensation level, bonuses etc., should be structured in such a way that it is aligned with shareholder success and we should let individuals manage their personal finances as they see fit. At the end of the day, you go home to your family and that's what counts. During the day in the life at corporate america, everyone is replaceable, heads roll all the time, and giving 110 percent to your job, then going home and putting all your own pocket money into that corporation is not a balanced way to live, or to achieve a balanced work and family life. Most times it's just not a good idea for the sake of diversity as you say. Sure, if you are so positive about your companies prospects and feel it's the best investment - great. Otherwise, no. I know as much as it would send a positive message as one very small factor that is noticed by some investors, it's not that big of a deal. Now Harry - he should buy shares instead of receiving them for free.
If Nokia wanted to use this license as an example of their exemplary behavior, it seems the the second signing by ERICY is just one more drop in the bucket of behavior that indicates collusion among the MENS.
Question is, at what point can someone take all those drops in the bucket, and pour out a case for collusion, and where would that case be taken to?
correlation or causality? Single acts are hard to prove, but there is a lot of behavior and public statements and positioning publicly by the bully Nokia, over time, that suggest there has been coordinated stonewalling and collusion behind the scenes by MENS. A lot of behavior that suggest that Samsung has been intentionally following a playbook. It would be great to see an entirely unexpected event, like the raids on Samsungs offices uncover evidence of this collusion that would expose the corruption, and maybe even take down Nokia as the company leading the charge.
Loop, there was a period of time that you sounded like you were souring on this investment, mostly in discouragement of legal resources being wasted on unfruitful efforts.
It's nice to see you cheering up on this investment, and feeling more confident on the direction of proceedings going forward. It helps me to lighten up and stay the course.
Thanks for your contributions!
~ Wayne
Rmarchma-Hey - maybe TeeCee can! Since on account of him we no longer have any analysts reports to review...
OT: Oldog-you missed your calling, chacha is pursuing your business model and might get rich on similar talents...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080116/tech_test_chacha.html?.v=6
Review: Humans Take on Search Queries
Wednesday January 16, 7:43 pm ET
By Candice Choi, AP Business Writer
Review: Human-Powered Search Engine ChaCha Lets Users Ask Broad Range of Questions
NEW YORK (AP) -- With no fear of the confusion that can arise from text-message shorthand, a new search service is employing a novel tool to answer queries sent by cell phones: human beings.
Having a person -- rather than an automated service -- field your questions while you're out and about is appealing in a range of scenarios: finding a recipe for banana pudding, settling a TV trivia dispute, locating a quality thin-crust pizza in a specific neighborhood.
ADVERTISEMENT
And, as long as an answer can be found online, ChaCha promises that a "guide," reached by sending a text message to 242242 (CHACHA), will respond in an average of 3 minutes, though some answers take 10 minutes or longer.
Except for a few kinks, ChaCha worked as advertised in the days before and after its Jan. 3 launch. My query for a simple meatloaf recipe took 4 minutes to satisfy. Questions such as "What is Scott Baio's middle name?" were answered within 2 minutes: "Scott Vincent James Baio was born in 1961."
ChaCha is free for now, but the company plans to start charging $5 to $10 a month after 10 free queries starting in the spring. In contrast, Google's SMS service is free but can troll only for automated information such as phone numbers, stock quotes, currency conversions and weather updates.
ChaCha, based in Carmel, Ind., has about 5,000 freelance "guides" across the country and promises that at least 10 percent are logged on at any given time. The guides can sign in whenever they want, but the company says it works out that at least 500 are always online.
ChaCha CEO and founder Scott Jones said that base of workers could be dramatically scaled up in a short time if needed. Most of the guides are college students, stay-at-home parents or retired. They're paid an undisclosed fee for each message they answer, and they work whatever schedule they choose.
For the near term, ChaCha plans to split the fees it earns with cell carriers, although Jones would not disclose details and no carrier has agreed to a fee structure.
In the longer term, Jones hopes to eliminate user fees and earn money from advertising. The company will also roll out a voice-activated version of the service later this year.
Using ChaCha can be easier and faster than using a smart phone. But it faltered when more than one step was required to answer a question -- like my request for directions to the McDonald's closest to my company's headquarters. The directions, which came a few minutes later, started from the correct address, but sent me much farther away than the McDonald's right outside.
Plus, I didn't get an address for the restaurant, just a direction to head down the West Side Highway and, inexplicably, go "Left on Canal/Hoboken St." (there's no Hoboken Street in Manhattan).
ChaCha is better at answering more subjective queries, such as "Best thin-crust pizza upper w side." Within 3 minutes, I got the name of a restaurant that was "said to have the best thin crust on the upper west side," accompanied by its address, phone number and Web site.
Even the humans sometimes have trouble with shorthand, however. A follow-up question -- "What is the x street and what time do they cls" -- elicited a strange response:
"The x st is parallel to the y st and no, it's never closed! Keep doing the ChaCha!"
It turns out ChaCha wasn't ready to respond to follow up queries because guides couldn't yet see prior elements of a thread. The company has since fixed the glitch so guides can see the full chain of queries from a particular phone number -- and presumably understand that x street would mean cross-street.
When asked who the rapper Flava Flav picked to be his girlfriend on the first season of his VH1 reality show, the ChaCha guide on the other end seemed stumped. After 13 minutes, however, the phone buzzed with the answer (Nicole Alexander, also known as "Hoopz").
ChaCha is a definite convenience if you don't have access to a computer. And it's fun to see -- for free -- how quickly guides will be able to answer random questions. But it's hard to think of scenarios where such a service would be worth paying for, when services like Google's SMS provide the basics for free.
http://www.chacha.com
OldDog967. Many folks have been wanting to see Sr mgmt pony up their own money on the open market as an act of confidence. To me, this act taken to put RSUs that were already in their pocket in time, back into the pot and base it instead upon performance is an equal, if not better act of good faith, confidence, and possibly acknowledgement that too much candy was being handed out for no basis other than to make them rich at the expense of shareholder value.
Is there any other way to view this? Perhaps I just do not understand completely what happened.
If I do understand it correctly, I applaud their actions, and do wish they would have met the higher goals. I hope similar incentives are placed before them along the same lines.
I too wish they would have met the goals and got their payout. I also am particularly happy to see performance-based compensation for a change instead of open feeding at the trough! Mark G., came in and talked about it for awhile, and uncle Billy gottr done! That scores pretty highly in my book - it's fiscal prudence and it's about time. Noone should feel sorry - that's what it's about...set the bar high, but realistic if there's excellent execution - it's for once aligned with shareholder interests. If they continue along these lines going forward, better execution will follow and the stock price will reflect that stock dilution was commensurate with results (rise in EPS).
OT Plumear, thanks for your advice and suggestions. It is greatly appreciated!
~ Wayne
OT: tech traders/chartists advice
Jimlur-you can delete if this is trashing your site.
Just setting up a new laptop, and recently established a small slush fund for more active trading.
Any advice on quality free or affordable (low $) sites to get up to speed on technical trading, charting based on my own study-no paid courses or seminars, but will buy & read books (reccomendations please). I currently invest through Scottrade.
I'm fine with numbers, math, and accounting and have been implementing and supporting SAP finance/cost accounting software on the functional side since 1997, and work with both accounting/cost accounting folks and programmer/developers daily. I have some good material on financial statement analysis, although I'm a bit rusty.
Advice on good books would be appreciated.
If anyone knows of a real-time stock qoute gadget or streaming ticker, please share
Thanks for sharing a little of your experience and tips to guide a relative newbe to technicals and charting.
~ Wayne
Please send information to:
fwrobinson@alltel.net
DD, I'll agree with you on that, I personally do not think this is the powder that WM was speaking of, and certainly hope not.
From this smaller fish, I am happy about being able to connect dots from at least some product perspective to Motorola, Cobra, Radio Shack and Walmart, plus it has the China factor.
I'm also not a big one to dwell on buyout possibilities, but when you get the kind of validation we seem to be racking up stepwise, and on the legal front this could be the start of a great year. I'm glad to see an announcement early on. China is investing in the U.S., and while a recent article came forward this weekend speculating on a QCOM buyout (nothing new), what if an offer came from China? Do you think that would send our stock northward?
Any license that gives us a foothold, and momentum in the China market is a positive development. So we must walk before we run...I'll take it and be happy about it.
fitsy321, not sure of your age, but while your at it, look up statistics of how many heart attacks are brought on by snow shoveling and you will have your reason not to undertake that chore truly justified-that's how I lost my father -just after he finished shoveling snow. I declined an invitation over to my sisters because I had a cold and didn't want to pass it to her newborn baby.
Suggest that you hire one of your neighbors boys to do it, and watch Mizzou kick butt in the cotton bowl. My father was planning to bowhunt the next day, and we all know he would not want to live incapacitated, so we have accepted the unexpected event, as it usually is for everyone.
I'm enjoying these holidays with special joy this year as we have our bags packed and ready to head to the hospital. My wife could go into labor at any time now, with a due date of Jan 5. Happy new years to you, and stay healthy.
I don't mean this in any dis-honorable, way in that I'm not trying to make light of his passing, but does anyone believe Lord Pumphrey's decision that IDCC holds essential patents was due to a visit from the ghost of Christmas future?
I'm still elated about that decision because I was braced for loss, and I appreciate it as truly administering justice and hope this event in know way derails that pursuit.
It seems to me that subsequent judges involved will not retrace or backslide his ruling, as a matter of honor to justice as he was preparing for his next duties, unbeknownst of this sad occasion that should make everyone pause about their own mortal bodies, and what we purpose to accomplish in our fleeting lives.
He held an honorable position among men (and women) in that he was a judge carrying out what should be the will of God on earth, as it is so in heaven, while the rest of us not holding that position would be only so honored by resisting the temptation to judge others...it does not even require use of the IGNORE feature on IHUB...and I'm not saying that I am any more honorable than anyone else...just food for thought to all of us in this small community of common interest.
I lost my father to an unexpected heart attack on new years eve entering 1999, and my heart goes out to his family over their loss as it still feels like yesterday about this time of year.
If I had 100 million dedicated to buying back shares, I would keep quiet and put that money to work picking up shares on the cheap...
The key to successful negotiation is to put more chips on the table to negotiate over. The more you have, the more you are likely to have left at end of the process. IDCC just raised their anti and place more chips on the table.
Thanks Gio, I hope their goose is finally cooked. I liked the question from the judge about "When is the last time you were paid anything from Samsung - 1996!"
After all - the purpose of arbitration is to save both time and money, and the arb. panel decides how much weight to give to the evidence before them, and that panel included a Samsung pick.
It would be nice if this judge realizes they had made some choices that placed them on a certain track w.r.t the MFL, and puts an end to there merry-go-round game playing.
Management is already bracing everyone in anticipation of a negative Pumphrey decision, and with the spin everyone knows Nokia will put on it - whether they win or loose, I would be holding buyback powder until after that decision is announced if it's coming soon.
OT: glad your getting back in strong, and good luck to you. I'm in and holding on tight.
Jimlur, and just a few bullet-points down is a Kudo to you about management putting a few of their own tokens in the pot.
Jimlur, It is quite obvious in Tom's report that Loophole's contributions and opinions are highly valued not only by the board, but by Tom Carpenter and likely other analysts and interested parties (like NOKIA and Samsung lawyers sleuthing the board for crumbs all the time...).
The bullet-point in Tom's report about the UK lawsuit as being excessive lawyering and a waste of shareholder's money for the shareholders of both corporations is a testament to just how lucky we are to have him post his legal opinions.
I'm not trying to take away anything from any of the other valued legal eagle's on the board at all, but Tom Carpenter adopting that opinion was an obvious Kudo to Loophole in my opinion. I'm a big fan of Gohrs also, and wish he would post as frequently, as he weighs in with amazing legal insights and is a talented communicator, and there are many more posters that could be similarly mentioned.
I hope introduction of the term "past economic phase of negotiations" was not introduced in this conference call because it's a new measurement for success for management bonus purposes. If so, that would be a crock...MO
Right now - it doesn't
I'm just pointing out one convenient benefit of the buybacks nd not suggesting now is the time for a stock split by any means. However, if be ever start getting the revenue predicted in their investor presentation, a split will be in the future because there are not that many shares floating to begin with.
Doesn't the end result of all these buybacks put enough authorized stock back in their control to execute a stock split without having to amend bylaws and authorize more shares? That would be a welcome announcement once the revenue is proven and flowing for 3G.