InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

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Just don't under-estimate the importance of the Ericy case. Sure, it's only for TDMA and it's only for the US but IDCC's future licensing ability depends upon a favorable settlement of the 2G Ericy case. Assuming that IDCC's wideband CDMA patents are valid and essential, they will still need credibility to license them. If it turns out that IDCC has been crying infringement all these years and the TDMA patents weren't even essential, more doubt will be cast on any 3G CDMA claims they make. Manufacturers will figure it's better to to just ignore them than to pay excessive royalties.

I'm sceptical of IDCC's ability to extract more than $100 million from Ericy because of the length of time this trial has been going on. It looks to me like IDCC is delaying the process, almost as if they know the settlement will not be all it's cracked up to be and they want to try to get some 3G licenses signed up before the news is out. Why else would it take over 9 years?

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