Patent pool operator Sisvel launched its long-awaited 5G multimode licensing programme today, December 14.
The pool contains 14 licensors including Philips, Mitsubishi, and Siemens and will target licensees in the consumer electronics industry.
Licensees will pay $0.50 per-unit for a 5G multimode device, and lower rates for 4G and 3G devices ($0.42 and $0.25, respectively).
The launch of the pool comes after a series of delays. Sisvel CEO Mattia Fogliacco told Managing IP this was down to the recruitment of additional licensors.
Via Licensing, a competitor of Sisvel’s, announced in April that it was exiting the wireless telecoms market.
Via’s subsidiary, Wireless Innovation, and eight of Via’s licensors have joined Sisvel’s 5G pool instead, a development Fogliacco said would benefit the market.
“The 5G programme is testament to our success in licensing in the mobile telecoms space, which is notoriously difficult unless you are one of the top innovators,” he said.
After Via’s announcement, Sisvel said details of the 5G pool would be available no later than September.
But that deadline was missed because Sisvel was recruiting an additional licensor. That licensor is among the 14 participants named today, Fogliacco said.
Fogliacco said he didn’t expect major 5G SEP owners such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Qualcomm to join the pool as they preferred to license bilaterally.
“More often than not, those companies have existing bilateral agreements that need to be renewed and a pool wouldn’t generate any transactional efficiencies for them,” he said.
But the door remained open to any licensor who wished to join, he added.
The news caps a busy year for Sisvel, which launched a Wi-Fi 6 patent pool with the backing of Huawei in July. It was the first time Huawei had signed up as a licensor for any of Sisvel’s programmes.
Last month, Sisvel also launched its cellular internet of things (IoT) pool with licensors including Ericsson, Sony, and Optis.
The pool includes patents that are declared essential to the LTE-M and Narrowband IoT standards, which are subsets of 4G wireless technology used in IoT devices.
Managing IP last week named Fogliacco as one of the top 50 most influential people in IP.
