Conversant and RPX agree licensing deal on ex-Nokia patents
Standard-essential patent (SEP) owner Conversant Wireless has reached an agreement with RPX Corporation, that will give some RPX members a licence to patents formerly owned by Nokia.
San Francisco-based patent advisory company RPX announced the deal on Monday, November 2.
A “subset” of the RPX membership will have a licence to Conversant’s portfolio of wireless patents, including a substantial number of SEPs. Conversant acquired the assets from Nokia in 2011.
Dan McCurdy, CEO of RPX, said: “We are pleased to reach agreement with Conversant on this significant SEP portfolio.
“This is another demonstration of our belief that by bringing licensees together, it is possible to minimise and resolve patent disputes, and significantly reduce the friction and cost of enforcement, thereby delivering benefits to both licensors and licensees.”
As of September this year, RPX has invested nearly $3 billion to acquire rights to more than 60,000 US and international patent assets on behalf of more than 320 clients.
In January last year, RPX agreed a licence with patent pool operator Sisvel for more than 500 of Sisvel’s SEPs directed towards Wi-Fi-enabled devices and 200 non-essential Wi-Fi patents.
Boris Teksler, CEO of Conversant, added: “We have always believed in mechanisms that increase licensing efficiency such as RPX and licensing pools, and this transaction confirms our conviction.
“This transaction is confirmation of the importance of this portfolio which has been validated by the decisions of UK and German courts. We look forward to on-going efforts to obtain additional value from these valuable technologies.”
In August, the UK Supreme Court handed down a highly-anticipated ruling involving SEP owners Conversant and Unwired Planet.
The country’s top court dismissed appeals from Chinese technology companies Huawei and ZTE against Conversant and Unwired Planet, concluding that English courts have the jurisdiction to determine fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) rates for global patent licenses.
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