InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[la-tsla-fan]

FRAND is hard enough to decide for one SEP. Trying to determine it for a complete portfolio of SEPs and other patents is what all the years of negotiation are about. Ultimately, it isn't much different from using comparable sales to set a home's price; but finding comps for patents is much trickier.

Every licensee and potential licensee is concerned about not suffering a competitive disadvantage. To that end, a simplified menu of offerings with quantity discounts would be helpful. However, the market is constantly evolving. Whoever signs a multi-year deal will be either rejoicing or pulling out his hair a couple of years into the license period. Flexible pricing would be an incentive, but finding some sort of index to anchor the price is problematic.

The bottom line is the same as in any major business decision; you cannot remove all of the uncertainty.