Zip
I brought up the importance of Ericy a long time ago and the powers that be on this board disagreed saying that we will receive 2g money from Nok regardless of the Ericy outcome. I do not know the answer for sure, but I am inclined to hold on to my assessment that we must get a favorable outcome in Ericy to get additional 2g from Nok and the rest of the sharks. However, that is certainly not the case in 3g and it is again the timing. I was the first to post that management used the Nok agreement to justify the bonus plans which fell into place shortly thereafter. It is the missed timing by the entire industry that has backed management into "cheap shot" territory. If you believe that 3g is a crap shoot, then there is nothing that I can say that will alter your position on this topic.
You say I missed the point and I say I have been on point all along. When the jury made the finding in Mot and the judge backed it up, I had a horrible sinking feeling. I had 10 years invested in the company at that time and literally thought it was over. I hung around for the appeals, but really did not have much faith that much could be done. After all, the lawyer for IDCC had failed to make the proper objections to preserve error and had literally lost the case by altering a court exhibit without the permission of the judge or giving notice to opposing counsel. The alteration turned the judge sour and IDCC was on a bobsled to disaster in his court from that point. As you can readily see from the 1985-88 correspondence discovered in the Ericy matter, an arsenal of information was available to combat Cox and friends and make mince meat out of their paid hired gun testimony with engineering assessments from the GSM group. Of course, Gsm was not a subject of that litigation, but the patents and validity challenges certainly were a part of their assessment. There was no Markman, an enraged judge and questionable counsel in the Mot case. The Ericy case is much different because these obstacles are not present in this case.
I will grant you that any case is a crap shoot to use your language, but I am much more comfortable with this case after all the smoke has cleared. However, I do not believe 3g is a crap shoot by any stretch. I just think that the timing was missed and I posted my reason for that earlier this week. Other than the salaries being a bit high for the present results, I can not fault the players for seeking compensation. They nosed their way into standards committees with 1/6th of the present staff. They created B-CDMA with that small staff at the same time and it is no secret that this was the foundation for our position in W-CDMA. They got the agreement with Nok with the smaller staff and had a perceived ally at the round table for 3g. Up to this point, these guys were not receiving big bucks. In fact, the company operated without a CEO for quite some time during that era and HG had double duties. However, things were going great and momentum was building and the guys who carried the ball during the recovery period post Mot decided to take home some money. They had the Nok fee for service and royalties and the only thing that has backfired is the timing and the economy.
I believe that many posters are long on griping and short on memory as to what was accomplished with a very small staff over a 5 year survival period for very little compensation. They beefed the staff up after the Nok agreement and have been trying to move forward without a subsequent reduction. However, timing has them in a box on this front also.
I handled a matter for a guy who worked the first five years at Compaq for literally no money and stock options. Once the company got off the ground, it was obscene what he was worth. Ray Kroc's secretary worked two years for stock only and became a millionaire. These things happen. I would say that the Mot decision and the appeals decision covering 1995-97 put IDCC back into the start up mode. Therefore, the company has really been in existence for 5 plus years and the accomplishments, though they have not paid off big time, are amazing to me. Some here may think that what they have accomplished is nothing, but you will never get me to believe it for an instance. The licensing page has had its problems and I pointed that out. The Nok agreement had possible draw backs and I pointed that out. The Ericy case was reset because of the judge and I pointed that out. I have been quick to point out the negatives as well as the positives. However, when you state that I have missed the point, I can without reservation state to you with the utmost confidence that I have not missed at all.
Three years of a lousy market has us all on edge. I am sick of the color red and I know you are too. However, IDCC 2003 is so much ahead of IDCC 1997. These guys have used what leverage they had in 2g to position themselves in 3g and have built enough of a case with Ericy to get us a nice portion of 2g pie while the timing catches up with the expectations.
MO
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