Loop - Some thoughts re concerns about IDCC's access to the IPR required to begin marketing ASICs.
The Ericsson EMP "Platform" offering provides a full set of the processing functions required to make an integrated wireless ASIC work as required, AND it also appears to include a pass-thru package of the IPR rights required for a commercially marketed ASIC(see bolded below).
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Ericsson EMP Overview
To date its customers have shipped more than seven
million WCDMA phones. By the end of
2004, EMP's platforms could be found in
ten models of WCDMA phones, giving
EMP a 30% market share of the worldwide
WCDMA market.
EMP's customers
At year-end 2004, EMP had signed license
and development agreements with fourteen
customers worldwide. Six of the top handset
manufacturers use mobile platforms
from Ericsson.
Business model
EMP develops extensive core technology in
the form of
. integrated circuit design;
. platform software;
. complete design of reference phones; and
. test software.
The EMP business model is to license this
core technology and sell consultancy support
services to customers. The license fee is
typically divided into an up-front charge for
access to core technology and a per-unit royalty
when products are in volume production.
The platform makes use of EMP's integrated
circuit devices. Customers buy these directly
from EMP's silicon partners but negotiate the
purchase price with EMP. EMP also provides
support to help customers get into production
quickly.
Modern phones contain functionality that
requires intellectual property rights (IPR)
from multiple parties. Examples of IPR are
audio and video coders, Java virtual machines
and profiles, universal serial bus
(USB), and crypto cells.
Ordinarily, a phone manufacturer will
have to negotiate with different IPR owners
to use their licenses, but EMP can sublicense
most IPR to the manufacturer, often
at a lower price than the manufacturer could
obtain through direct negotiations. EMP can
thus offer its customers a complete package
of key components and licenses for technology
from EMP and third parties. Many customers
appreciate this one-stop shopping.
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Since we have now been told that InterDigital plans to begin delivering their engineering samples of a standards-compliant HSDPA/HSUPA W-CDMA ASIC(and the protocol stack software necessary to run on it) sometime this summer, IMO it is a good bet that IDCC has exercised their "option to license" Ericsson's EMP platform AND,... that IDCC plans to become another one of Ericsson's "silicon partners" selling to wireless OEM's. In addition, I'm thinking that IDCC's ASICs will also enjoy access to Infineon's relevant IPR under their fab process partner contract relationship.
If that is on target(?), any infringement actions taken against IDCC's ASIC products would effectively be against the combined patent portfolio's of Ericsson and Infineon. IMO it's not to worry with those two big players on IDCC's ASIC team.
AI
