InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[Learning2vest]

Just finished listening to the Needham replay(link below) and managed to get some of the Moto comment.

My take is that Rich did a nice job of saying all that could(and should!), be said at this point in time. Too many legal switches open to do any public speculation about what might come next.

I'm guessing that what we all WANT to hear is somebody saying "Your IDCC shares will be worth a gazillion dollars when the market opens next Tuesday", and then for them to back that up with a stream of blockbuster news flashes, i.e., new facts that confirm our expectations!

LOL! That day ain't here YET(Tick, toc,...), so playing "shoot the messenger" after hearing somebody say anything less than that is kinda unfair IMO. None of us is gonna care WHO said what we want to hear when it gets said one of these days! "Yee Haw" time.

Thought I heard some pretty good stuff in that presentation this morning. Will get the Motorola comment out of the way first. It came from Bill Merritt during the Q & A and apparently he was off stage and started talking "out there" somewhere.

Cranked up the sound level and did a couple of replays to get what sounded something like Bill saying "2G was one thing, but we are in talks with Motorola's product folks about 3G technical solutions" in reply to a question about licensing that firm for 3G after what happened in 2G.

That comment backed up a major theme in Rich's presentation which was the idea of using a high value engineering solution to get the product folks at wireless OEMs excited about doing business with IDCC. He explained that patent licensing folks at the OEMs can sit and wait behind whatever excuse they choose to use, but the product engineering folks at those same firms have market competition and new model deadlines driving them to make decisions in real time.

I like that marketing strategy a lot. Give the product guys something they really want and need, have them run it up their management chain with all of the reasons why it's a good idea, and THEN,.... HAVE THOSE BIG HITTERS bring their patent licensing folks into the discussion. Different meeting.

The patent licensing guys are not about to sputter excuses in the face of a product exec who just invited them to his office for the first time. You just say "hi" when they walk in, sit quietly as the product guy spits bullets for a few brief minutes about "value pricing on a package of product and patent licenses that he needs done yesterday", and then agree to help those patent licensing soldiers complete their new assignment. That approach sure beats the heck out of waiting on another infringement litigation to run it's course.

The current product focus at IDCC is really exciting if I'm understanding it correctly(?). Here goes, stand by for corrections. A key component of every 3G device is the "Modem" which sits between the baseband radio and the application layer. Most OEM's license both the baseband radio and Modem components from somebody else, and then differentiate their products by developing their own applications level software.

The modem is a highly complex set of software modules which convert radio signals into data the application software can understand. That software set is called the "protocol stack" and it has 3 discrete levels of function for each transmission mode or standard.

It's a bunch of very complex stuff, and the key appears to be having a COMPLETE SET of those modules that is fully integrated and bullet proof. That's why IDCC licensed a level 2/3 GSM/GPRS/EDGE protocol stack recently, and is about to license a level 1 GSM/GPRS/EDGE protocol stack. IDCC already has the level 1/2/3 W-CDMA release 4 and HSDPA release 5 pieces ready to go, and Rich said those components will be demonstrated in Spain next month with performance levels better than anybody else has shown so far.

So where's the BEEF? It's coming, and it's gonna taste real good was the message I heard yesterday. IDCC is working hard to produce the first, and the best, fully integrated modem for dual mode GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Release 4 W-CDMA HSDPA/HSUPA.

"SHAZAM!" No question in my mind that the product engineering folks at every wireless OEM will be beating a path to KOP if IDCC can make that happen. Create a compelling product solution and let it drive a value discussion on patent licensing is what this guy heard IDCC say at the Needham conference. I thought it was a boffo story!

Link to replay;

http://www.wsw.com/webcast/needham13/idcc/