Sisvel interview: The benefits of a dip in the pool
When patent licence administrator Sisvel was set up in 1982, patent pools in consumer electronics didn’t exist, says chief executive officer Mattia Fogliacco.
That changed around 20 years ago when Sisvel began focusing on the business model of pools, which it has been working on ever since. Often associated with complex technologies, patent pools are an agreement between two or more patent owners to license patents to each other or third parties, allowing for efficient transactions.
“We’ve been trying to change and evolve the framework on which we work on patent pools for the purpose of making it fit for new challenges and the new landscape in the markets for technology,” Fogliacco says, adding that the ones seen today are very different from the consumer electronics pools of 20 years ago.
Sisvel began as a joint venture between the three principal Italian manufacturers of TV sets: Seleco, Imperial and Brionvega. Sisvel acquired and was tasked with managing domestic appliance maker Indesit’s TV-related patents consisting of more than 200 patent families.
By the 1990s, Sisvel’s major licensing activities began, with licensees being Korean and Japanese companies and, later, European TV makers.
Sisvel’s success was evident—in the late 1990s, major players in the consumer electronics industry, such as France Telecom (now Orange) and Philips, turned to Sisvel to have the administrator license some of the companies’ IP portfolios based on digital audio technology.
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