InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[olddog967]

Data: Ericsson’s financial statements, like Nokia’s, shows Provision accounts. However, unlike Nokia, they do not separately show a provision account for IPR infringement. The following is all they state regarding their Provisions accounting:

Provisions
 
Provisions are recognized when the company has a present obligation, an outflow of resources is probable and a reliable estimate can be made of the obligation.
 
Provision amounts for product warranties are based on assumptions, involving historic failure rates as well as estimates regarding failure rates for new products, and also estimates on costs to remedy various types of faults.

On their Dec 31, 2003, financial statement they reported six types of provisions, total amount of $4.49 billion. The only category which could possibly cover infringement was a coverall subcategory of Other, which had a balance of $1.67 billion. Since the IDCC settlement was finalized during 2003, any provision for that would have been eliminated during the year. Actually during the year the Other subcategory increased in amount; there were additions of $3.65 billion, and reductions of $2.46 billion.
(Note: Financial statement was in Swedish currency (SEK). The noted US $ amounts, were converted based on the average 2003 rate of $1 = 8.0351 SEK )

Conclusion: No idea what amount may have been set aside by Ericsson to cover IDCC.


olddog - do you have access to the ERICY and other documents listed here? Did E actually put $1B into their infringement kitty for IDCC?......or was Mickey just successful in planting those numbers?

http://www4.ffii.org/akteure/ericsson/index.en.html