Olddog: The Huawei arbitration will hopefully decide on one of two rates and the arbitrators' decision will hopefully be accepted by both parties leading to a license agreement. Arbitration is a reasonable way to resolve focused disagreements. However, if a potential licensor refuses to make even a low-ball offer, the only enforcement mechanism available to the patent holder requires a claim-by-claim determination of infringement. If and when infringement is determined, a rate calculation for the infringed claim(s) follows and results in absurdly low licensing fees. Repeating this process for multiple patent families is not practical.
What we need is a determination of market rates for a basket of patents that have been licensed to a significant chunk of the market. IDCC has a rate supported by many licenses. However, the hold-outs like MMO and ZTE can wait with impunity while their trials progress through the district courts and the CAFC. Other hold-outs can watch from the sidelines with the full knowledge that whatever happens will not be much worse than agreeing to IDCC's offer now, and may be significantly better.
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