Find a pitbull and tie his pay to results.
Seems to be the tone of the day around here.
Since we are on the topic of balls or lack thereof I thought I go back and see what Howards thinks of the subject. LOL.
See here is where I disagree with Howard's strategy. I don't beleive these companies must be willing to pay. They must be DEMANDED to pay.
What is lacking is the understanding that when companies like LG produce 3G handsets to be sold by Hutchison they are STEALING from the company.
If you walked into Macy's and stole a pair of shoes would they call to at home and discuss your willingness to pay for those shoes after you already wore them?
IMO, this team or this strategy is lacking the killer instinct needed to get these deals done. I'd love to see some new faces on this team and a new more agressive approach being taken.
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Frank Marsala, First Albany - Analyst [100]
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Just one last question on 3G -- you say you have essential patents there and you've talked, Howard, today and this is the first time I've heard about having economic discussions or being in the economic state. I think, in many ways, that's very encouraging. When I look at transcripts of other calls, QUALCOMM talked about having 40 to 50 -- I'm sorry, 50 new agreements or 50 agreements in place for WCDA and (indiscernible) CDMA and InterDigital has only a handful. Are you simply pricing too high? Are you looking for too much? Is the industry pushing back on you with respect to what you are asking for for your 3G intellectual property? Are you taking yourselves down a path here -- clarify this for me, please -- are you taking yourselves down a path where you're looking for too much from an economic perspective and you may find yourselves again being forced to go to litigation?
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Howard Goldberg, InterDigital Communications Corp. - President, CEO [101]
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This is the same type of self-examination that we go through all the time. We don't believe that we are overpricing ourselves; we believe that our royalty rates are very reasonable at this point in time.
You know, I guess when you try to compare us to QUALCOMM, they have a different dynamic in place and certainly have been helped by their positioning from the semiconductor side. But we are comfortable that what we are seeking is a reasonable royalty rate consistent with the terms of our declaration.
You will find that as you go into many companies, no matter what you ask for in terms of the use of your inventions, it would be too much as a matter of negotiating posture (ph) but a very legitimate question.
This is the first litigation we've instituted in almost 11 years, and we have some number in excess of 30, approaching 40 licensees that have found that what we were asking for was reasonable. We've been able to complete deals with them. There just has to be a pervasive willingness to accept the obligation to pay.
You know, we've had a little pause this quarter. This is somewhat cyclical. You put enough balls and play and you'll have some pauses, then you'll have a whole bunch come in at one time. That's at least what's happened in the past, and we believe that we're doing it the right way for now. But we will continue constantly to re-examine what we are doing and ask ourselves the hard questions in metric to the market.
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