InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[0nceinalifetime]

Ricardo, good questions:

"Why is everyone so afraid of arbitration with Nokia? If the bruising court battle with Ericsonn and Sony led to a recognition of the patents of IDCC, why would these same patents not be valid with Nokia? "

First, you need to recall that the much heralded IDCC/Ericsson license agreement only covers standards based on TDMA technologies. No W-CDMA or CDMA2000 technologies. That's right, so far Ericsson has refused to license with IDCC for any of the 3G standards! The licensed technologies are being phased out as 3G is being phased in so, IMO, the IDCC/Ericsson license is too little, too late. Can you believe only $34 million for a decade or more of infringement? And now Nokia's announcement that they are going into arbitration rather than paying up is strong evidence that Nokia believes Ericsson over-paid.

So that's why arbitration is such bad news. I can't believe some try to turn it into a positive.

Once