A look back at Sisvel’s 2024
New partners, new deal structures and new hires made 2024 a year to remember
It’s nearly the end of 2024, and we at Sisvel would like to send our thanks to all the clients and partners who contributed to our shared success over the past 12 months. Our programmes, licensing and Sisvel Tech teams are squarely focused on starting the New Year with a bang. But first, let’s look back at some highlights from the year that was…
Dealmaking innovation
We remained at the forefront of deal structure innovation, announcing two major licensing transactions that harnessed aggregation on both sides.
In January, Sisvel worked with RPX to bring together 20 patent owners with 16 technology companies to conclude a licence agreement related to our Video Coding Licensing Platform. Enormous transactional efficiencies were unlocked through this deal structure, which eliminated the need for 16 separate deals between the Sisvel platform and the RPX members – or 320 separate deals between each individual patent owner and implementer.
In the Cellular IoT space, meanwhile, Sisvel reached a groundbreaking agreement with Nordic Semiconductor which allows IoT device makers to obtain a pool licence via the supplier. This deal was the first of its kind, and it was reached by two European entities representing technology developers and implementers respectively, and framed specifically with SMEs in mind.
Licensing momentum
The Wi-Fi 6 programme carried strong licensing momentum into the year and continued to gain traction. Across Q4 2023 and Q1 2024, 11 pool licensing agreements were closed. August brought a major breakthrough in the form of a deal with Acer. This transaction garnered significant attention in the market and provided solid validation of the FRAND terms on offer, positioning the programme for an even stronger 2025.
Programme expansion
The Cellular IoT programme grew to 34 patent owners, making major inroads among Asian innovators in 2024. ZTE, TCL and SK Telecom came onboard in January. The programme also added LG Electronics, KT Corporation and Vodafone in September. Crucially, this brought the pool’s share of all NB-IoT and LTE-M SEPs above 50%.
Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi 6 pool welcomed Orange as its newest licensor, adding to a leading group of innovators which also includes Huawei Technologies, MediaTek, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, Philips, SK Telecom and Wilus.
Finally, our 5G Multimode programme expanded to 16 members with the January addition of NTT.
New faces
Sisvel welcomed several IP veterans to its senior leadership team.
In January, Joff Wild became Sisvel’s first-ever head of content and strategic communications after retiring from a 30-year career in journalism, most recently as editor-in-chief of IAM.
Steve Jedlinski was appointed general counsel in March. He joined Sisvel after 15 years in private practice, most recently as an equity partner with Holland & Knight’s Chicago based IP group. He discussed his background and his new role in an interview with Sisvel Insights in May.
Jukka Nihtilä was named head of Sisvel’s business development function in September, with a broad remit to identify new business opportunities and turbocharge existing ones, while ensuring the firm can extract the most from the knowledge and skills of its highly talented team. He joined the firm after a distinguished career with Nokia, where he was most recently head of business development, multimedia and new segments.
Making our voice heard
It was a critical year for Sisvel’s effort to share its wide-ranging technical, legal, dealmaking and strategic expertise with the broader patent community and policymakers.
We created a regular stream of content for the Sisvel Insights page, from legal analyses to programme updates to interviews to opinions. We introduced weekly and monthly email newsletters to keep our clients and others informed on the latest happenings within Sisvel and in the wider licensing world.
The Cellular IoT programme launched an educational site and informational campaign to help IoT companies understand licensing. Sisvel Connect 2024 was held in Barcelona, bringing the Sisvel community together for a week of meetings, learning and networking. We also brought our message to publications including IAM, la Repubblica and The Parliament.
Sisvel Insights: Top 10 Most Read Articles of 2024
We made it our mission this year to showcase the impressive expertise within the Sisvel Group, significantly ramping up the content shared on our Insights page. Experts from across the business lent their support, sharing analysis on a wide range of market, programme and policy matters. These were our most-read articles of 2024: they are arranged in chronological order:
1. The Chongqing Nokia v OPPO global FRAND rate determination
Donald Chan, 5G Multimode programme manager, produced one of the earliest and sharpest analyses of a Chinese court’s groundbreaking SEP judgment back in January, in an article that still serves as a valuable reference.
2. Sisvel Wi-Fi 6 patent pool sees licensee surge
A licensing update from Giorgia Varvelli, who manages the Wi-Fi 6 programme, garnered significant attention. The pool subsequently built on its momentum with the Acer deal announced several months later.
3. We need to talk about hold out
Head of licensing programmes David Muus reviewed a string of court decisions acknowledging hold out as a major obstacle to the completion of FRAND licensing agreements. He also shared personal experiences of bad faith stall tactics and explained how unwilling lincensees cause harm to innovators, competitors and consumers.
4. Patent trolls are not a European problem
This article from Sisvel’s Joff Wild pushed back on the bad-faith narrative around the threat of patent troll activity in Europe. Published in April, it sounded the warning bell on a Big Tech lobbying effort that is still underway.
5. FRAND lessons from the UK Court of Appeal ruling in InterDigital v Lenovo
Donald Chan, our head of FRAND and royalties, unpacked five takeaways from one of the most important SEP decisions of 2024 in a must-read analysis that covers a wide range of issues from the 89-page judgment.
6. The truth about the creation of the ETSI IPR policy
We put a spotlight on a new paper from Ruud Peters which tackles misunderstandings about the origin and purpose of the ETSI IPR policy. We’re very pleased to have helped this important work reach a wider audience.
7. The time is ripe to re-think the EU SEP regulation
This September opinion piece from Sisvel’s Jake Schindler was the first article to analyse the EU SEP regulation in light of the hot-off-the-press Draghi Report, making the case for a complete re-think.
8. Europe must avoid the distortions of the US patent debate
Joff Wild hit back forcefully at mischaracterisations of Sisvel and others in a Unified Patents article published by JUVE Patent in June, further evidence of bad-faith narratives emerging around patents in Europe.
9. Cellular IoT patent royalties: a closer look
Sven Torringer, who runs the Cellular IoT pool, published a detailed explanation of the programme’s royalty rates. The piece includes comparisons with Qualcomm, Avanci and others, which drew significant interest from the market.
10. For Ericsson, ‘Massive’ IoT means massive opportunity
Senior licensing director Thomas Choi told us about Ericsson’s approach to IoT licensing, including its role as a founding member in Sisvel’s Cellular IoT programme.