NIcmar: Good Post, Particularly Agree About NOK NOT hiring or firing IDCC personell. That is the most absurd thing people posted in the wake of the HG and R.I.P firings. Well maybe equally absurd was saying this was handled well.
Unless there was a settlement that involved a merger, if IDCC EVER fired a CEO and/or COO because an adverse party in litigation demanded it, then they might as well just close up shop and all become doormats.
As to settlement vs award, I tend to think award, 2G only (that's all that is at issue) but that doesn't preclude settlement talks using the award as a starting point, negotiating point.
I think it is important, VERY important for IDCC to just win outright and big. Unless there is some weakness in their position that I'm unaware of which augers for settlement, a settlement like the ERICy settlement can do more damage than good. Rather than being a "watershed event" triggering subsequent infringers to license and pay as many expected (me included) I think it signalled real weakness.
IDCC needs a big win to show everyone that we can win. If after a big arb award for 2G they settle with NOK for 3G and perhaps discount the 2G award, that might make sense--but too much discount sends the wrong signal. Of course, I am NOT saying that we would NEED to settle 2G with any discount following an arb award, but if we get a global settlement and perhaps a new business relationship with NOK going forward, that would be a great thing--what we don't need is ten or twenty years of litigation over 3G and another five over 2G. We need to get the big manufacturers licensed and paying and producing a steady revenue stream which has SOME predictability to it, and then to focus on R&D of IP for 4G and beyond...
Oh yeah one more thing. I really don't see how the firing was handled well. Yeah I think it was a good thing. But the timing sucked and IF it really was in the works, I still find it incomprehensible how the sudden nature of it and obvious superficial bs "explanation" was handled well. It was either sudden and unexpeted and still could have been handled better OR it was in the works and should be studied in business schools as a model of how not to handle such an event.
JMHO of course!
AI
