LTE Patent Licensing Contenders

1. ETRI: http://www.etri.re.kr/eng/
Established in 1976, ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research organization that has been at the forefront of technological excellence for more than 30 years. Our research institute has successfully developed information technologies such as TDX-Exchange, High Density Semiconductor Microchips, Mini-Super Computer (TiCOM), and Digital Mobile Telecommunication System (CDMA). As a recognized leader in the information and telecommunication research institute in Korea, we will strive to be the best in the fields of information and telecommunications.

2. Huawei: http://www.huawei.com/ipr2.do
As a leading global provider of next generation telecommunications network solutions, Huawei is a major contributor to various industry standard bodies, including 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 , Huawei is committed to the establishment of a robust, cost effective, open ecosystem for Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Services Architecture Evolution (SAE). Therefore, Huawei applauds and welcomes the sharing of IPR to facilitate the advancement of new technologies that promote healthy competition and encourage new entrants to the industry. As a major IPR holder in LTE/SAE standards, Huawei will grant its LTE essential patents to third party licensees according to reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) principles, subject to reciprocity. Effectively, Huawei will allow any company to use Huawei's essential patents to practice the standard based on reasonable compensation in consideration of Huawei's long-term substantial investment in the development of the standards.

Huawei anticipates and supports a low single-digit percentage of sales prices as a reasonable maximum aggregate royalty rate applicable to end-user devices. The rate shall be based on value added by the technology in end-user products, and competitive pressures in international markets will dictate such royalty rates. Huawei believes it will hold 15-20% of all essential patents relate to LTE standard, therefore, a royalty rate with some flexibility, but not to exceed 1.5%, is expected. And this rate is negotiable in bilateral negotiations, subject to reciprocity provided by other party.

Huawei's business philosophy is to maximize value for customers by providing excellent telecommunications network solutions and services, continually focusing on our customers' challenges and needs.

Huawei actively participates in 83 international standardization organizations including ITU, 3GPP, 3GPP2, OMA, ETSI and IETF. Meanwhile, Huawei's representatives have been elected to positions in various organizations, including vice chair of ITU-T SG11, chair of 3GPP SA5 , vice chair of RAN2/CT3, vice chair of 3GPP2 TSG-C WG2/WG3, vice chair of TSG-A WG2 ,chair of ITU-R WP8F Technical Group , vice chair of OMA GS/DM/MCC/POC , Board Member of IEEE CaG etc.

Through our active participation in these groups, Huawei is committed to realizing the vision of network convergence, where communications and networking services are genuinely merged together.

By September 2008, Huawei had filed 32,822 patent applications. By the end of 2007, we had held 7% (152 patents) of the world's UMTS essential patents, ranking amongst the top five in the world.

3. Interdigital: http://www.interdigital.com/patents
Our know-how and inventions reach across virtually all mobile and wireless devices. InterDigital holds over 3,000 U.S. and foreign issued patents combined. In addition, we have nearly 9,000 patent applications in process. Our success in increasing the pace and breadth of our innovation business reflects our fundamental commitment to remain an industry leader in the creation of pioneering wireless technologies. We have a comprehensive program of developing and protecting our intellectual property through the worldwide filing and issuance of our patents.

InterDigital’s licensing practices are considered exemplary by licensing and industry experts. In 2006, in recognition of our licensing program success, InterDigital received the prestigious Licensing Achievement Award from the Licensing Executives Society. The company is also a founding member of the Innovation Alliance- a coalition of entrepreneurial companies seeking to enhance America’s innovation environment by improving the quality of patents granted and protecting the integrity of the U.S. patent system.

4. LG Electronics: http://www.lge.com/us/about-lg/innovation/technology/mobile-technologies.jsp
LG Electronics develops top-quality core technologies such as CDMA, GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), and HSDPA-and offers services based on the most advanced mobile communication environments.

LG is the frontrunner of the CDMA market thanks to our many years of technological research and product development. Also, we have achieved outstanding success in the GSM category in terms of top-quality, unbeatable product-development capabilities. At LG, our goal is to continue to progress toward increased global market-share and industry-leading competitiveness with our UMTS (WCDMA) and HSDPA handsets, using world-class technologies such as Mobile TV and 3G technology.

LG Demonstrates 4G Mobile Technology HD level, Wireless, Live Video Relay: LG successfully demonstrated the "HD-level, wireless, live video relay" that uses standard 4G mobile communication-LTE (Long Term Evolution)-technology.

5. Motorola: http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=8827
Over the years Motorola has engaged in extensive research and development (R&D) in the field of telecommunications technology. One result of this R&D is the ability to offer compelling products and services to our customers. Another result is the creation of world-class patent portfolios. For example, Motorola owns patents that are essential to the prevailing 2G and 3G wireless communication standards such as GSM, GPRS, CDMA2000 1X, EV-DO, and UMTS WCDMA. For these various essential patent portfolios, Motorola has had a long standing policy of licensing the essential patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Such a licensing framework has enabled technology companies to fairly share in R&D results of each company. In addition, this licensing framework has allowed other product companies, which do not have their own R&D resources, to benefit from the technology resulting from Motorola’s R&D. Motorola is currently developing technology and products for a next generation wireless technology that is based upon the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard known as Long Term Evolution (LTE). As with other generations of wireless technology, Motorola believes that it will have a significant portfolio of patents essential to the LTE standard. In accordance with Motorola’s long standing policy related to the licensing of patents essential to a cellular communication standard, Motorola will offer licenses under its LTE essential patents to willing licensees on FRAND terms, subject to reciprocity. Reflective of Motorola’s historical position in the industry with respect to telecom essential patent portfolios, Motorola expects that its essential patent royalty rate for LTE systems and equipment (e.g. infrastructure and subscriber handsets) will be approximately 2.25%.

6. NEC: http://www.nec.com/global/solutions/nsp/mwc2009/Exhibits.html
NEC is a world-leader in wireless networking. Since providing the world's first 3G network in 2001, NEC has developed and deployed some of the world's most advanced wireless networking solutions. As a leading participant in the 3GPP group that developed the LTE standard, NEC is committed to LTE solutions that feature the highest levels of quality, scalability and interoperability. Our deep involvement in the standardization process is demonstrated by the fact that approximately 40 members and two vice-chairmen of 3GPP are from NEC. NEC is also contributing to various other groups working to develop and promote international LTE standards including LSTI and NGMN.

7. Nokia: http://www.nokia.com/A4993368
Open standards provide an industry framework for effectively advancing the development and deployment of new technologies, and encouraging competition, which ultimately benefits consumers.

Today all products rely on intellectual property from a number of different companies. Therefore, how companies exchange their standards-related intellectual property is critical to delivering next generation technologies. Intellectual property rights (IPR) create an incentive for sharing industry standard technologies and enable viable product businesses with reasonable IPR costs. This is achieved by participants committing to license essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

The hallmarks of FRAND licensing are, subject to reciprocity:
· Commitment to allow any company to practice the standard, and a right to reasonable compensation to IPR owners
· Reasonable maximum aggregate royalty rates based on the value-added by the technology in the end product
· Flexible bilateral licensing negotiations, based on proportionality of licensor’s share of all standard essential IPR for the relevant product category.

Currently, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is standardizing a next generation wireless technology called Long Term Evolution and Service Architecture Evolution which is together referred to as LTE. Nokia expects LTE technology to be increasingly incorporated into products such as laptop computers, consumer electronics devices such as cameras and navigation devices, and into smartphones.

Nokia encourages a healthy business environment around LTE technology and licensing terms for the standards-essential patents that reflect the value added by that technology in the licensed end product.

There has been considerable uncertainty in the industry regarding future IPR cost of LTE technology, and a strong wish to increase the predictability and transparency of IPR licensing costs. LTE standardization is a long process, and it is likely to take several years before there is reliable information about essential patent ownership in the industry. Therefore, any disclosed LTE royalty rates are only preliminary indications, and no meaningful conclusions can be drawn by adding together often unsubstantiated price requests. Nokia believes that the reasonable maximum aggregate royalty rate for LTE standards-essential IPR in an end-user device is a single digit percentage of the sales price, and that the market will drive the aggregate royalty rate for LTE technology to be in this range. Based on Nokia’s extensive experience of licensing standards-essential IPR, we see no reason to expect that the LTE IPR cost would be any higher.
Given the current state of uncertainty about ownership of LTE standards-essential IPR, the best way to increase transparency and predictability is to disclose principles for future licensing of LTE standards-essential IPR. Based on past experience, and the current level of technology investment, Nokia believes it will have 20-30 percent of all LTE standards-essential IPR. Subject to reciprocity, Nokia will license its LTE standards-essential IPR at prices that are consistent with the principle of proportionality and current best understanding of Nokia’s share of all LTE standards-essential IPR. Currently, we expect Nokia’s rate for devices that deploy LTE as the only wireless communication standard to be in a range of 1.5 percent from the sales price of an end-user device. However. a significant use of LTE is expected to be in connection with other wireless communication standards, such as GSM, UMTS and/or CDMA. When multiple wireless standards are used in the same end product, Nokia will follow similar principles in setting the royalty rate for Nokia patents essential to other standards. To avoid unfavorable effects of royalty stacking, Nokia will not charge royalties higher than 2.0 percent from the sales price of an end-user device for IPR that is essential to wireless communication standards irrespective of the number of wireless standards deployed in such a device.

The Nokia licensing policy takes into account customary volume discounts that allow manufacturers of devices to benefit from lower rates for higher volumes. The licensing policy is based on reciprocity which means it is conditional upon the licensee agreeing to use the same main principles in its licensing to Nokia products.

8. Nortel: http://www.nortel.com/corporate/technology_new/patents.html

For more than 10 years, Nortel has been a key innovator in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), Adaptive Modulation and Coding, Space Time Coding, Channel Coding, Automatic Retransmission Request, OFDM Sub-channel Mapping, Hand-off and Frame Structure, and MIMO Transmitter/Receive Architecture - the radio access technologies at the heart of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE). Nortel has developed fundamental and valuable patented and patent pending technologies in these fields. Nortel's Research & Development (R&D) efforts and advancements have allowed it to be an early and key contributor to the development of the LTE standard and will enable it to be a major provider of LTE solutions in the market. Nortel believes that pioneers and innovators should be entitled to a reasonable return on their investment in R&D. Patent rights are an incentive that reward and encourage the progress of innovation. Nortel supports licensing patents essential to the LTE standard on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, subject to reciprocity. Nortel believes that compensation provided through licensing standards essential patent claims under FRAND should be based on the significance of the patented technology in the standard and the value of the patented technology to the licensed implementation. To help in accelerating the development of an LTE ecosystem and the global adoption of LTE by service providers and end-users, Nortel is willing to offer a discounted royalty rate for its LTE standards essential patent claims for LTE handsets. Nortel will license its LTE standards essential patent claims for LTE handsets at a royalty rate in the region of 1% on the sale price, subject to reciprocity, defensive suspension, and grantback to Nortel products, services, and solutions, as well as other customary license terms and conditions.

9. Qualcomm: http://www.qualcomm.com/common/documents/licensing/LTE-WiMax_Patent_Licensing_Statement.pdf

Throughout its existence, Qualcomm has led the wireless industry in the research and development (R&D) required to move from analog technology into second and third generation digital wireless technologies and beyond. These advances have been largely based upon Qualcomm's patented enabling inventions making it possible to apply code division multiple access (CDMA) technology to commercial cellular wireless networks. More recently, Qualcomm has been a leading developer of the technology enabling high speed data extensions of 3G networks and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based 4G systems and standards. As a result, Qualcomm owns an extremely valuable patent portfolio that includes patents that are essential, and others that are commercially useful, to all commercial wireless standards based upon CDMA and OFDMA-based systems and standards currently under development.

Qualcomm has had a long standing policy of broadly offering to license its standards essential patents for CDMA-based telecommunications standards on terms and conditions that are fair, reasonable, and free from unfair discrimination (FRAND), subject to reciprocity. FRAND is a well-established principle that appropriately balances the interests of patent holders to obtain a fair return on their innovations and those of implementers to obtain access to such innovations through good faith bilateral negotiations of licensing terms and conditions. FRAND embodies a flexible approach that allows individual licensors and licensees to negotiate the terms and conditions that are best suited to address their respective commercial objectives, and values standards essential patents through arms-length negotiations. Contrary to recent claims by a small number of manufacturers, FRAND does not, and never has, prescribed formulas for imposing cumulative royalty caps or proportional allocations of such royalty caps. Such formulas would arbitrarily limit the value of standards essential patents, discourage innovation, encourage the filing of marginal patents, complicate and delay the standardization process, and be impossible to implement in practice.

Consistent with these industry-accepted principles of FRAND, Qualcomm has established a fair and reasonable value for its essential 3G CDMA (e.g., cdma2000 (including 1x, 1x-EV-DO, and 1x-EV-DO Revisions A and B), UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, TD-CDMA, and TD-SCDMA) patent portfolio by bilaterally negotiating licenses for such portfolio with more than 155 companies, making Qualcomm’s patent portfolio the most widely licensed in the industry. Qualcomm’s open and inclusive licensing program has promoted vibrant competition in the market by a large number of licensees selling 3G products that have reaped the benefits of Qualcomm’s leading R&D investments, significant reductions in 3G product prices, and increases in consumer choice.
Unlike vertically-integrated companies that obtain a return on their R&D investments by profits from sales of products and equipment and primarily use their patent portfolios to protect these profit-generating businesses, Qualcomm relies heavily upon licensing revenues to obtain a fair return on its enabling innovations and to fuel its industry-leading R&D investments that continue to drive the industry forward with enhancements of 3G

CDMA standards and the development of OFDMA-based 4G standards. Qualcomm recognized many years ago that future high speed wireless data communications could utilize OFDMA and related technologies to increase wireless data rates. As a result, Qualcomm for many years has engaged in extensive OFDMA-related research and the development of OFDMA-based wireless broadband systems and standards. Further, in 2005 Qualcomm supplemented its R&D by acquiring Flarion, a recognized leader in OFDMA-related technology and commercial systems. Indeed, at the time of the acquisition, Flarion had already established a reputation as an industry leader in the development of OFDMA technology for wireless applications and deployed a commercial OFDMA-based system referred to as FLASH-OFDM. By combining the fundamental and extensive patented inventions developed as part of Qualcomm’s and Flarion’s early and continuing OFDMA-related R&D, Qualcomm today holds a leading and valuable patent portfolio that applies to all existing 4G standards under development, including 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and IEEE 802.16e/802.16m (WiMax).

Qualcomm has filed declarations with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) disclosing a significant portfolio of patents and patent applications that Qualcomm believes may potentially be essential to LTE, and has committed to ETSI and IEEE to offer licenses on FRAND terms and conditions (subject to reciprocity) to its patents that are and remain essential to the current LTE and WiMax standards under development. As was the case with Qualcomm’s standards essential 3G CDMA patent portfolio, Qualcomm already has negotiated and signed ex ante licenses with a number of companies (including two major handset manufacturers) under Qualcomm’s standards essential LTE and WiMax patents for products that implement LTE and/or WiMax but do not also implement 3G CDMA standards.
Consistent with the industry-accepted principles of FRAND described above and the value of Qualcomm’s standards essential LTE and WiMax patent portfolios established through bilateral, arms-length negotiations culminating in Qualcomm’s existing LTE/WiMax license agreements, Qualcomm expects that it will charge royalties for a license under its standards essential LTE patents and/or standards essential WiMax patents for complete, end user subscriber devices that implement LTE and/or WiMax standards, but do not implement any 3G CDMA standards, of approximately 3.25% of the wholesale selling price of each such device, subject to reciprocity and other standard terms and conditions. Qualcomm’s expectation is based upon its understanding of the current LTE and WiMax standards under development and its existing patent portfolio. Qualcomm’s current expectation may change in the future based on, among other things, changes to the LTE and/or WiMax standards and/or changes to Qualcomm’s patent portfolio (e.g., acquisition of additional applicable patents).

In most cases, multi-mode LTE or WiMax devices that also implement 3G CDMA standards will be covered by Qualcomm’s existing 3G CDMA license agreements. As previously communicated to the industry, with respect to multi-mode LTE/3G CDMA devices and WiMax/3G CDMA devices, Qualcomm expects that it will not charge a royalty rate on such multi-mode devices for use of both Qualcomm's standards essential LTE and/or WiMax patents and standards essential 3G CDMA patents that is greater than

Qualcomm's standard 3G CDMA royalty rate, subject to certain standard terms and conditions.
Although Qualcomm has previously disclosed its licensing terms and conditions for its standards essential LTE and WiMax patents to a large number of wireless operators and equipment vendors, Qualcomm is providing this statement to further increase the level of transparency to the industry regarding the potential patent licensing costs for end user subscriber devices that implement LTE and/or WiMax.

Qualcomm encourages all owners of standards essential LTE and WiMax patents that intend to seek royalties for licenses to such patents to voluntarily provide the industry with similar transparency into their expected royalty rates and other terms and conditions, including whether or not their royalty rates for 3G CDMA standards essential patents and royalty rates for LTE/WiMax essential patents will be cumulative for multi-mode LTE/3G CDMA devices and WiMax/3G CDMA devices.

10. Samsung Electronics: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/telecomm/
Samsung is an experienced leader in developing and delivering personal broadband solutions, including significant investments in technology for 4G LTE and Mobile WiMAX networks and devices. Samsung’s first public debut of Long Term Evolution (LTE) included a total solution from infrastructure equipment to devices. In particular, Samsung has developed its own access network system and core network system, which support multi-vendor interoperability. Also Samsung is the first mobile manufacturer to showcase a mobile phone type LTE device. Samsung’s LTE solution is fully compliant with the latest 3GPP LTE Rel-8 standard. Active discussion and trial tests are starting in 2009 and the first commercial LTE service will begin in 2010.


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