As we close out 2024, we reflect on a year of exceptional milestones, underpinned by our innovative spirit, strategic partnerships, industry leadership, and continued research in wireless, video, and AI. This newsletter spotlights InterDigital’s achievements of the past year.

2024 Spotlight on InterDigital

InterDigital delivered strong financial results throughout 2024, driven by high-value licensing agreements and a robust patent portfolio shaped by our foundational research and innovation. In addition to exceeding revenue expectations in Q3, and announcing a 2030 revenue target of $1B annually, InterDigital hosted its first Investor Day under current management, featuring presentations by President and CEO Liren Chen and members of the executive team outlining InterDigital’s mission and vision.

The year was also punctuated by strategic licensing successes, including new patent license agreements with Samsung, Google, Lenovo, and TPV. InterDigital also renewed and signed new license agreements with Panasonic, covering our 4G, 5G, cellular, HEVC video, and Wi-Fi patents. In 2024, we signed a landmark license agreement with OPPO Group, which includes OPPO, realme, and OnePlus, marking a trend that reinforces the foundational nature of our research and innovation to the mobile ecosystem.

In 2024, we expanded our reach in different ways, hiring Ken Kaskoun as InterDigital’s Chief Growth Officer, leveraging his experience at Qualcomm and SomaLogic and background as an engineer, lawyer, and experienced inventor to drive InterDigital’s growth and technological prowess in wireless, video, and AI. InterDigital also opened a new office location in Melville, Long Island in addition to celebrating more than ten years of research and innovation in our London office. InterDigital also announced several academic partnerships to amplify our research, including joining Princeton University’s Next G Initiative and collaborating with Concordia University’s Intelligent Next Generation Networking and Multimedia (IN2GM) Lab on AI-enabled immersive media delivery.

A full scope of our research ingenuity, social impact, and environmental “handprint” was outlined in our 2024 Corporate Sustainability report, including an update on our commitment to DEI. Among the events hosted throughout the year, InterDigital’s inaugural Women’s Network hosted a Fireside Chat with Board members Jean Rankin, Joan Gillman, and our Chief Licensing Officer Eeva Hakoranta to discuss inclusive ways of working and advocacy for women in technology.

InterDigital's Leadership and Awards

Our impact is bolstered by the ability of our research to advance wireless and video capabilities, and by the expertise and leadership of the outstanding engineers and experts who drive our innovation.

• This year, InterDigital named Michael Starsinic and Fabrice Le Léannec as Inventors of the Year. The outstanding engineers were recognized for their expertise and research contributions to wireless and video standards that make seamless communication of data and content across a variety of devices, services, and network capabilities possible.
• InterDigital CEO Liren Chen was also appointed to the USPTO’s Council for Inclusive Innovation to help drive greater participation in America’s innovation economy, and Chief Licensing Officer Eeva Hakoranta has been named among the 50 most influential people in IP by Managing IP.
• At IEEE, Dong Tian was elevated to IEEE Fellow and Xiaofei Wang was appointed Chair of the 802.11 Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Yifan Li was also selected as the Philadelphia Section Delaware Valley Young Electrical Engineer of the Year.
• In 3GPP, Atle Monrad was elected to Chair of SA6 - Service and Systems Aspects Working Group and at the ITU, Gaelle Martin-Cocher was re-elected to Vice Chair the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG).
• In the U.S., Doug Castor was elected to Co-Chair the ATIS Next G Alliance Steering Group, and Bob Gazda was invited to participate in the FCC Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC IX).

In addition to earned leadership roles, InterDigital also received several awards recognizing our outstanding research and innovation.

• According to Lexis Nexis, InterDigital has been listed for three consecutive years on the Innovation Momentum: Global Top 100 report and was ranked among the top five patent owners in HEVC/VVC and Wi-Fi 6 when combining both quality and quantity.
• In 2024, InterDigital was awarded two CSI Awards for Best Immersive Video and Video Processing Technology, and shortlisted for an award for best sustainability project.
• InterDigital engineers were also awarded the SMPTE 2024 Journal Certificate of Merit for outstanding research on Pixel Value Reduction technologies.
• In wireless, InterDigital was shortlisted for three FierceNetwork Innovation awards for outstanding innovation in AI, wireless evolution, and sustainability.

InterDigital's Industry Engagement and Demonstrations

Throughout the year, InterDigital demonstrated technology, presented expertise, and showcased research collaborations at conferences and industry events around the world.

Mobile World Congress

At MWC:

• InterDigital demonstrated a snapshot of our innovation impact, spotlighting a suite of 6G sensing and energy-aware HDR solutions, and haptics codecs that empower connected experiences at work, at rest, and at play.
• InterDigital showcased alongside industry partners to amplify our research, including hosting a joint demo with Razer to enable a live, haptic-enhanced racing game experience. InterDigital also collaborated with Broadpeak to display MPEG V3C immersive content distribution over a content delivery network and partnered with Keysight to show how AI channel estimators can be trained, added to a 6G physical layer, and validated with over-the-air hardware.
• In addition to demos, Valérie Allié delivered a stage presentation on innovations enabling immersive streaming experiences, explaining the potential and pathway towards delivering immersive video experiences enhanced by haptics at scale.
• Later in the year, Bill Redmann spoke on a panel exploring technologies and solutions to support more immersive sports and fan experiences at MWC Las Vegas.

Video Conferences

Our video engineers also promoted our video innovation and impacts at a variety of tradeshows, including AWE, NAB, and IBC.

• At AWE, InterDigital and Philips demonstrated volumetric streaming technologies empowering immersive sports experiences, specifically implementations of the MPEG Visual Volumetric Video-based Coding (V3C) standard.
• At NAB, InterDigital showcased innovations in high definition and sustainable video streaming alongside partners from ATSC, Advanced HDR by Technicolor, and the Ultra HD Forum. InterDigital specifically displayed contributions to Advanced HDR streaming solutions and energy-aware media solutions like Pixel Value Reduction.
• At IBC, InterDigital displayed our innovative research in broadcast and immersive video solutions alongside industry partners at the Ultra HD Forum and International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers (IAMB) booths, and promoted our contributions to the MPEG Visual Volumetric Video-based Coding (V3C) Immersive Platform at the 5G-MAG Insights conference.

Wireless Conferences

In wireless, our engineers amplified their expertise through different industry trade shows and conferences, like the 6GSymposium and the Brooklyn 6G Summit.

• InterDigital returned as a partner to the 6GSymposium Fall, which featured panel presentations and discussions with InterDigital’s CTO Rajesh Pankaj, VP and Head of Wireless Labs Milind Kulkarni, and Head of Wireless Research Doug Castor exploring the crucial conversations and most compelling use cases for the ‘next G’ and the global standards ushering in new wireless capabilities and services.
• At the Brooklyn 6G Summit, InterDigital and The University of Texas at Austin demonstrated their collaboration to validate AI solutions for wireless networks and shape AI for 6G.

InterDigital's Expertise

Throughout the year, InterDigital publishes reports, eBooks, blogs, and other content outlining our research priorities while our experts contribute their expertise to the understanding of advancements and innovation in wireless, video, and AI.

Wireless

Building upon our heritage of wireless research, innovation, and standards contributions, we explored the current state of wireless evolution and introduced the critical technologies and trends shaping 5G Advanced and the road to 6G.

• InterDigital’s white paper with ABI Research on Driving 5G-Advanced to 6G explores how 5G-Advanced is revealing new enterprise capabilities and paving the way for 6G. Experts shared their expertise in a webinar that discussed the benefits and impact of 6G-enabling technology ISAC for new services, verticals, and enterprises.
• In addition to our report and webinar, InterDigital’s expertise was quoted in CNBC discussing network slicing as a crucial step in the technological upgrades leading to 5G-Advanced, and in a Telecoms.com article about the telecoms operators efforts to recoup investments in 5G infrastructure. InterDigital shared some insights with IBC on the mobile industry’s search for breakthrough applications and enterprise use cases for 5G, and was interviewed in Light Reading for our expertise on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and higher frequency bands as potential breakthroughs for 6G.
• To foster a deeper understanding of ISAC, an important 6G enabling technology where InterDigital leads innovation, we published an eBook explaining the convergence of telecom and sensing data through ISAC and the emerging use cases for network operators and users alike. Our engineers further detailed the benefits and challenges of ISAC, and were positioned as leaders advancing 6G sensing capabilities in Fierce Network.
• InterDigital was recognized in 6GWorld for our role in 6G innovation and fostering ISAC’s potential to supplement fixed broadband, and Alain Mourad was featured in The Fast Mode explaining how ISAC paves the way for smart factory implementation.
• Throughout the year, Doug Castor contributed to a deeper understanding of the 6G roadmap and the technology trends, limitations, and milestones that will define 6G, including in this 6GWorld webinar. Milind Kulkarni elaborated upon the roadmap and outlined the direction 6G standardization is taking and goals for 6G research with 6GWorld.

Video

InterDigital also drives research and innovation in video as our engineers develop codecs and associated media solutions targeting 2D and immersive video. Our research continues to enhance how the world communicates by enabling video experiences to be crisper, more immersive, and more realistic.

• InterDigital’s white paper with Futuresource Consulting on Haptics: The Next Modality in Immersive Entertainment detailed the standards, device enhancements, and innovation in content capture and creation that are opening new opportunities for immersive entertainment, and specifically the efforts to integrate haptics, or the sense of touch, within immersive communications. Our expert webinar discussed the state of the haptic market, standards ecosystem, and use cases that leverage haptic-enhanced communications and experiences.
• In addition to Philippe Guillotel’s feature in Forbes on the ways haptics may augment our lives in the future, InterDigital’s Immersive Video team posted informative articles to introduce the innovative devices and standards efforts to bring interoperable haptic-enhanced immersive experiences to a wider audience and to outline the immersive video codecs that are encouraging new depths of immersion in our connected experiences.
• 2024 was also deemed the “summer of sports” with the Paris Olympics and Euro Games attracting huge global audiences streaming the sporting events to their phones, telephones, and other devices. Exploring the ways InterDigital’s research and innovation might impact sports and Olympic viewing experiences in the future, InterDigital’s video experts were featured in articles in CSI Magazine, TVBEurope, Advanced Television, FEED Magazine, and more to offer expert guidance on the myriad ways advancements in video, XR, and 6G might immerse them deeper within the action.

AI

Alongside innovations in wireless and video, InterDigital showcased our research expertise in AI, including its practical applications for both video and wireless.

• When exploring the practical applications of AI, Fabien Racapé and Hyomin Choi penned a blog introducing the topic of video compression for machines and the new standards and delivery mechanisms to process video content intended for machine and algorithm consumption.
• Fabien Racapé also discussed with Streaming Media InterDigital’s CompressAI platform for integrating AI with video codec development and its role in accelerating AI-based codec design.
• In addition to the AI channel estimator demo InterDigital hosted with Keysight, Ulises Olvera-Hernandez was also quoted in a Capacity article exploring AI’s transformative impact on communication networks, highlighting AI’s role in creating dynamic networks, reducing energy consumption, enhancing user experiences, and fortifying security protocols.

Sustainability and More

We also strongly consider the ways our research, innovation, and standards contributions impact and empower society.

• On Earth Day, InterDigital shared the way our research and innovation encourage greater energy awareness, and Stéphane Tronchon discussed how standards will help us achieve a more sustainable future.
• Elsewhere, Valérie Allié’s feature in FEED Magazine introduces solutions to make Ultra HD content more sustainable, and her interview with TVBEurope outlined how Advanced HDR solutions can reduce energy consumption.
• In addition to being interviewed by the Schwab Network, and profiled in Forbes for leading one of the world’s largest pure research companies, managing innovative teams and high-powered partnerships, InterDigital CEO Liren Chen reiterated the importance of open, global standards in helping new entrants in a market and open new opportunities for incumbents.

As we reflect on a robust year of milestones and achievement, we take great pride in our accomplishments and will continue our important and impactful work as we enter 2025. From InterDigital, we wish you a happy and healthy new year.