- Joint Licensing Program to Increase Access to Essential Patents

LONDON, Nov. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sisvel has launched a new patent pool offering licenses under a portfolio of patents essential to LTE, the latest standard for cellular communications commonly referred to as 4G.  The portfolio includes patents owned by Cassidian, an EADS company, the China Academy of Telecommunication Technology, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, France Telecom, TDF, and KPN, as well as patents originally filed by Nokia that Sisvel acquired in late 2011.  The pool remains open to all companies that own essential LTE patents, and Sisvel continues to work with companies that have expressed interest in joining the group.

Sisvel's pool license makes the current portfolio of essential LTE patents available under standard terms and conditions with a running royalty rate of 0.99 Euros per device.  Further information regarding the portfolio license is available directly from Sisvel.

Jean-Francois Bernard, Licensing Director of France Telecom, praised the new pool as "...a step forward that will benefit telecom manufacturers, operators, and consumers by establishing convenient access to essential LTE patents held by the pool and its members."

"Working with Sisvel, we focused on designing an effective and efficient licensing structure that would also encourage additional owners of essential LTE patents to join the group," added Eric Davalo, CTO of Secure Communication Solutions at Cassidian.

"Sisvel's LTE pool represents tremendous value for licensees," noted Giustino de Sanctis, CEO of Sisvel International, "and it is a great opportunity for companies advocating lower aggregate royalty rates for the benefit of the LTE industry to advance that position by participating in this joint effort rather than undertaking individual license negotiations."

Sisvel invites all parties with patents believed to be essential to the LTE standard to contact Sisvel to arrange an evaluation of essentiality by the pool's designated independent evaluator.

About Sisvel

Started in 1982 when Sisvel S.p.A. was founded in Italy, the Sisvel Group has become a world leader in managing intellectual property and maximizing the value of patent rights. The Sisvel Group is global in scope and reach, with companies in Italy (Sisvel in None Torinese and Edico in Rome), the United States (Sisvel US and Audio MPEG in Metropolitan Washington, DC), China (Sisvel Hong Kong), Japan (Sisvel Japan in Tokyo), Germany (Sisvel Germany in Stuttgart), Luxembourg (Sisvel International), and the United Kingdom (Sisvel UK), with over one hundred professionals worldwide with technical, legal, and licensing expertise. Sisvel has a long history of managing successful patent portfolios including those related to the audio compression standards known as MP3 and MPEG Audio, and widespread technologies such as OSD (On Screen Display), ATSS (Automatic Tuning & Sorting System), and WSS (Wide Screen Signaling - for automatic switching of television image formats). Sisvel currently operates patent pools for the LTE, UHF-RFID, CDMA 2000, DVB-T, and DVB-T2 standards.

For additional information, please visit www.sisvel.com.