A virtuous cycle of innovation supported by fair licensing

InterDigital was one of the first companies to define digital cellular and an early pioneer in video innovation. Combined with our expertise in AI, our innovation powers today's connected experiences on smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, headsets, streaming platforms and more.

Through multiple generations of wireless, to today's 5G, and through successive eras of video innovation including the AVC, HEVC and VVC codecs, InterDigital engineers have been at the heart of changing how we connect through a range of different technologies.

Our engineering track record is matched by our rigorous adherence to fair licensing practices. The combination of new wireless and video technologies and the fair licensing of these technologies across industries have been key to the success of the global smartphone industry and they also play a central role in a variety of other industries, including consumer electronics, automotive, the Internet of Things, and video services.

Our licensing programs are framed by our strong commitment to fairness and, as guided by the patent policies of standards development organizations (SDOs), by our commitment to be prepared to offer licenses to our standard essential patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. It is through licensing our patents that we are able to re-invest in our foundational research and in our ongoing technology leadership, including in standards bodies such as 3GPP and IEEE.

The licensing of our foundational technologies ensures that device manufacturers, service providers, and consumers, benefit from more advanced products and, ultimately, that we are able to continue to invest in our foundational research, creating a virtuous cycle of innovation.

Thanks to standards, a new entrant who wants to bring a 5G handset to market, does not need to invest in their own R&D to develop their own wireless technology – the research has already been done for them by InterDigital and others. And, because standards like 5G are global in nature, the new handset can connect to a cellular network wherever a consumer is in the world.

As a publicly traded company that makes almost all of its revenue from licensing, information regarding our licenses is more readily available than most other companies involved in patent licensing, including both patent-owning innovators and companies who implement standardized technologies in their products and services. We not only publicly disclose certain revenue information regarding our biggest customers, but we also make it available and easy to access in one place. We also provide substantial information on our patent portfolio and technology development. Our approach aligns very well with the transparency we see in the technical development of the standards themselves, where innovations are presented in open forums to industry peers.

We're not new at this. InterDigital has been involved in this cycle of innovation for many decades, as a growing range and number of device manufacturers and service providers implement our wireless, video, and AI innovation. During this period, InterDigital has entered into hundreds of license agreements with manufacturers of all sizes, and, in the substantial majority of cases, without the need for litigation.

At InterDigital we believe in a balanced and pragmatic approach to patent licensing. It is an approach that focuses on finding a fair solution that will appropriately compensate innovators while meeting the needs of implementers, and allows for continued investment in wireless, video and AI research, to better connect the world around us.