InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[rmarchma]

Mschere re settlement amounts

If IDCC had their "druthers", they would certainly prefer to have settlement amounts go forward, and be recorded as earned recurring revenue in as many future quarters as possible. The accounting treatment of the NEC 2G settlement of $53m in 2002 comes to mind. None of this settlement was allocated to previous years, it is all being amortized into quarterly recurring revenues on a forward basis over 16 future quarters from the settlement date.

I don't think that IDCC will be able to do something similar with Nokia and Samsung though. Estimated amounts have already been allocated to past years in press releases and SEC filings. This did not happen with NEC. Also the Nokia and Samsung 2G/2.5G royalties end next year, so there is not many future quarters to work with anyway. I do not think or see how these previously reported 2G/2.5G royalty amounts can be rolled somehow into some possible extended 3G agreement beyond 2006 at this point. Sorry, but I am not as creative as some number crunchers.