InterDigital

InterDigital is a mobile technology research and development company that provides wireless and video technologies for mobile devices, networks, and services worldwide. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on NASDAQ and is included in the S&P MidCap 400 index.

InterDigital, Inc.
Public
Traded asNASDAQ: IDCC
S&P MidCap 400 index
IndustryWireless Patent monetization
FoundedPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (1972)
HeadquartersWilmington, Delaware United States
Key people
Doug Hutcheson, Chairman of the Board
William J. Merritt, President & CEO
Richard Brezski CFO
ProductsMobile Research and Development
Revenue US$280 million (2018)[1]
US$64 million (2018)[2]
Number of employees
 520 (2019) [3]
Websitewww.interdigital.com

InterDigital had 2018 revenue of $280 million and a portfolio of about 34,000 U.S. and foreign issued patents and patent applications.

Corporate history

Key Dates:[4]

  • 1972: Company is incorporated as International Mobile Machines Corporation.[5]
  • 1981: Company goes public.
  • 1992: Name is changed to InterDigital Communications Corp.
  • 1998: Alliance with Nokia is established.
  • 2003: Patent infringement suit is settled with Ericsson.
  • 2012: Moved corporate headquarters from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware.
  • 2014: Samsung and InterDigital sign a patent license agreement.[6]
  • 2016: InterDigital signs license agreements with Apple and Huawei.[7]
  • 2016: InterDigital acquires sensor processing technology pioneer Hillcrest Labs.[8]
  • 2017: LG and InterDigital sign a patent license agreement.[9]
  • 2018: InterDigital acquires patent licensing business of Technicolor. [10]
  • 2019: Technicolor announces it has received a binding offer for its Research & Innovation Activity from InterDigital.[11]

Research Areas

The company is primarily focused on advanced wireless (5G) and Internet of Things (IoT) research:

  • Xhaul: InterDigital is part of a consortium of companies and academics working together to develop an adaptive, sharable, cost-efficient solution integrating the fronthaul and backhaul segments of the future 5G transport network.[12]
  • Horizon 2020 POINT: POINT (iP Over IcN– the betTer IP) aims to develop technology, innovations and business value chains for commercially viable IP-over-ICN deployment. The POINT project consists of nine partners (both academic and industrial) from five EU countries.[13]
  • RIFE: Project RIFE uses advanced networking technology to address the challenge of providing affordable internet access by increasing the efficiency of the underlying transport networks and the involved architectures and protocols. The project consortium includes 7 partners that include Martel Consulting, Aalto University, University of Cambridge, Thales, Avanti, guifi.net and InterDigital Europe.[14]
  • 5G Socioeconomic Study: InterDigital along with Tech4i2, Trinity College Dublin and Real Wireless has been commissioned to develop a socio-economic data study launched by the European Commission.[15]
  • oneM2M: In 2015, InterDigital Labs participated in joint testing to verify multi-vendor interoperability of the oneM2M standard with other participants that include Cisco, HERIT, Huawei, KETI, Ricoh and Qualcomm.[16]
  • FLAME: Flame is a 5G testbed for urban scale trials of open media Internet services in European cities, including Bristol, UK and Barcelona, Spain.  The FLAME project is led by a consortium of twelve partners including University of Southampton, InterDigital Europe, Atos Spain, i2CAT, University of Bristol, Nextworks, Martel Innovate, VRT, The Walt Disney Company, ETH Zurich, Institut Municipal d’Informatica de Barcelona, and Bristol is Open.
  • 5G-CORAL: 5G-CORAL is an H2020 European Union/Taiwan collaborative project that is exploring service-based design in a deep and volatile edge-fog virtualized infrastructure and contributing to standards development that impacts radio access network (RAN) terminal and infrastructure, by creating a unique opportunity for access convergence. 5G-CORAL is coordinated by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), and includes ADLINK, AZCOM, Ericsson, InterDigital, ITRI, RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), Telcaria, Telecom Italia, and National Chiao Tung University (NCTU).

Patent Holdings

According to the company, since 2012 it has been listed by third-party analysts within the top 3 patent holders for cellular wireless more often than any other company, with percentages ranging from 8-10% of patents deemed likely to be standards-essential.[17] According to research by Wiseharbor Research, a technology IP research firm, InterDigital Technology Corp. and InterDigital Patent Holdings held 282 declared essential LTE patents and 155 declared essential LTE patents respectively. The report also shows other mobile SEP owner-licensors such as Ericsson (146 declared essential LTE patents), Qualcomm (350 declared essential LTE patents), Nokia (142 declared essential LTE patents) and Huawei (182 declared essential LTE patents). [18]

Major Licensees

In June 2014 Samsung and InterDigital entered into a patent license agreement that "resolves all pending litigation between the two companies".[19] The agreement is cited at being worth just under $500million.[20]

William J. Merritt, president and CEO of InterDigital said in a statement: “We are very happy to have resolved the licensing dispute with Samsung on mutually agreeable terms. This agreement with Samsung shows how our longstanding patent licensing framework and process can lead to effective, productive discussions and eventual resolution on fair and reasonable terms”.[21]

In September 2016, InterDigital signed a license agreement with Huawei, and the companies agreed to "a framework for discussions regarding joint research and development efforts."[22]

In December 2016, Apple and InterDigital entered into a multi-year license agreement.[23]

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. William J. Merritt, has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of InterDigital, Inc. since May 2, 2005. Mr. Merritt serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of InterDigital Communications, LLC.

He served as President of InterDigital Technology Corporation from July 2001 to January 2008. Mr. Merritt served as General Patent Counsel of InterDigital Inc., from July 2001 to May 2005 and also served as President of ITC since July 2001. Mr. Merritt served as an Executive Vice President of InterDigital Inc. from September 1999 to January 2004. Prior to that, Mr. Merritt served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from October 1998 to July 2001 and Vice President, Legal and Assistant Secretary from January 1996 to October 1998. He has been a Director of Shared Spectrum Company since February 2014 and InterDigital, Inc.[24]

Locations

InterDigital is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and has 13 offices (including 9 R&D facilities) in 8 countries around the world.

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References
  1. "NASDAQ:IDCC - Google Search".
  2. "NASDAQ:IDCC - Google Search".
  3. "Finance - Google Search".
  4. "International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.61. St. James Press, 2004".
  5. "Press Release | InterDigital.com". ir.interdigital.com. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  6. "Samsung Inks $500M Wireless Patent Deal with InterDigital".
  7. http://seekingalpha.com/news/3230828-interdigital-announces-patent-license-agreement-apple
  8. http://hillcrestlabs.com/interdigital-announces-acquisition-of-sensor-processing-technology-pioneer-hillcrest-labs/
  9. "InterDigital and LG Electronics, Inc. Sign Multi-Year Patent License Agreement". InterDigital.
  10. "InterDigital Completes Acquisition of Technicolor Patent Licensing Business". InterDigital Website.
  11. "Technicolor Has Received a Binding Offer for its Research & Innovation Activity From InterDigital". www.technicolor.com. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  12. "5G-XHaul ‹ 5G-PPP".
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2016-06-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "Homepage".
  15. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/news/identification-and-quantification-key-socio-economic-data-strategic-planning-5g-introduction
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-10-28. Retrieved 2016-06-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. http://ir.interdigital.com/Cache/1001245936.PDF?O=PDF&T=&Y=&D=&FID=1001245936&iid=4103938
  18. http://www.wiseharbor.com/pdfs/Mallinson%20on%20cumulative%20mobile%20SEP%20royalties%20for%20IP%20Finance%202015Aug19.pdf
  19. https://www.wsj.com/articles/interdigital-enters-patent-license-agreement-with-samsung-1401794394
  20. "Samsung Inks $500M Wireless Patent Deal with InterDigital".
  21. http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2348207/samsung-and-interdigital-reach-patent-accord
  22. https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/09/06/869694/0/en/InterDigital-and-Huawei-Sign-Multi-Year-Patent-License-Agreement-for-3G-and-4G-Terminal-Units.html
  23. http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/InterDigital+(IDCC)+Enters+Patent+License+Agreement+With+Apple+(AAPL)/12345712.html
  24. https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=280912&privcapId=280910
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