'Listen, learn and agree': Avanci's senior VP on its 5G licensing programme

Last week, Avanci launched its much-anticipated 5G connected vehicle licensing programme, with 58 initial licensors signing up and Mercedes-Benz as the first licensee.

This was a pretty big deal, considering that back in 2021, Avanci’s senior vice president Laurie Fitzgerald told WIPR that “Finding common ground between just a single licensee and single licensor could take months, if not years.”

No surprise, then, that the new programme was launched much later than planned, according to Fitzgerald in a fresh interview following the launch.

Texas-born Fitzgerald, one of WIPR’s Most Influential Women in IP, leads the day-to-day operations of the 3G, 4G and 5G Avanci vehicle programmes.

Formerly a practising patent attorney, she joined Avanci in 2018. She now lives in Dublin, where Dallas-headquartered Avanci has one of its five global offices.

“Creating this [5G] programme has been a massive undertaking and has consumed most of my time at work for years,” she smiles.

“But the result is, in my view, proof that really taking time to listen to many views and ideas from interested parties is ultimately the best approach.”

To put things into perspective, Avanci has licensed more than 130 million 3G and 4G of the world’s connected vehicles, thought to be four-fifths of the global total. This includes more than 80 automotive brands under licence for 4G.

Prominent participants

The fact that Mercedes-Benz is the first licensee to sign up to the 5G programme is pertinent, given that it was a proponent of hold-out over Avanci’s earlier 2G-4G programmes.

Fitzgerald explains that since Mercedes-Benz was an existing licensee in the 4G vehicles programme, Avanci was able to collaborate with the German automaker on the new programme.

“We're very happy that Mercedes decided to adopt our 5G licensing solution early on and be an industry leader in that respect,” she adds.

Among the first licensors are Huawei—another notable signatory since it is a standard essential patent (SEP) owner with a mighty portfolio.

“We always felt that Huawei joining Avanci was important, because we are always striving to be the most comprehensive and complete solution for licensees if possible,” says Fitzgerald.

“After discussions with them over many years, ultimately, they made the decision to join us and we could not be more pleased with that decision.

“Like I said, Avanci is only an option for licensees and licensors. And so to have two of the industry-leading companies—Mercedes and Huawei—as initial participants in the programme on day one, sends a message that we have indeed found a set of terms that can be widely accepted.”

Among the other licensors to the programme are Ericsson, InterDigital, Mediatek, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Siemens, and Vodafone.

Six participants are new: 5G IP Holdings (associated with IPVal), China Telecom, Coolpad, IP Innovation, Offino and UUCOM.

Years in development

Avanci began working on the 5G programme—which Avanci says covers the vast majority of essential cellular technologies—several years ago, while 5G technology was under development.

“Avanci was already thinking about how we could support the adoption of that technology and 5G connected vehicles—and there was a lot to consider,” explains Fitzgerald.

In particular, this was an opportunity for Avanci to incorporate new features into the programme, building on several years of experience working with licensors and licensees in its 3G and 4G predecessors.

“Then around a year ago, after many discussions over years with stakeholders, we felt that we were getting close to licensing terms that, in our view, could be widely accepted.”

But even then, she adds, it took another 10 or 11 months to finalise those terms, ensure broad participation by many SEP holders around the world, sign an initial licence and then publicly announce the programme.

Fitzgerald explains that Avanci initially intended to launch the programme “much, much earlier”.

However, the team needed to adapt as they realised that the best strategy was to gather all of the feedback possible from both the telecom industry and the auto industry, and to keep working on various iterations of the programme until they found mutual agreement.

Strategy, she adds, is about taking “all the time it takes until you can ultimately create the programme that has the best chance of success.”

Listen and learn

Avanci set out to find terms and conditions that could be “even more widely accepted” than those offered in its 4G programme.

And listening, she explains, was key to making that happen.

“The highest hurdle is always finding a compromise between dozens of companies from all around the world with different business interests,” explains Fitzgerald.

“We overcame that by listening and being solution-driven—and, of course, having a lot of grit.

“Avanci is merely a licensing option for both patent owners and automakers. We are not successful unless we find the right compromise.”

She adds: “Something that I have personally learned through this process is that when you're creating something new, your strategy may need to be flexible and adapt as you move forward in the process.

“By listening, we learned a lot over the last couple of years.”

‘Broad acceptance’ from SEP owners

The number of initial participating licensors, she adds, shows an “extremely broad acceptance of our solution by SEP holders”.

Fitzgerald expects additional licensors and licensees will join the programme in the coming months.

“We had an opportunity with the 5G programme that we didn't have in the 4G programme,” she says, adding that Avanci was able to solicit input from those stakeholders in the existing 4G programme.

Long-term transition

While Avanci’s vehicle programme continues to be very important for the firm, the launch of the 5G programme is not a complete transition, explains Fitzgerald.

Analysts, she says, suggest that 4G will be around for five years before new 5G connected vehicles outsell new 4G connected vehicles.

“So what's next is a bit of what we have already been working on since 2016, which is to continue to grow the adoption of our 4G licensing programme.”

And with respect to 5G, Avanci will “continue to get the message out that we're making it simpler and more efficient for automakers to implement this new technology in their cars”, she adds.

More yet to do

In the company’s announcement of the programme, Fitzgerald called the launch an “important milestone”.

But this, she tells WIPR, is “certainly not the finish line”.

“It is further proof that it is possible for industry to come together and find a licensing solution that can work for everyone.

“I cannot have been more delighted when we launched the 5G vehicle programme. It's never easy to create something new and seeing the programme launch and knowing that it will have a transformative impact on two industries gives all of us at Avanci a great sense of achievement.

“But of course, our work and my work is not finished. And there's a lot more to do.”