Patent Licensing Negotiation Consortium Formed with MOEA’s Support. First of Its Kind, The Consortium Will Pool 178 Patents on 3G-related Technologies to Negotiate Cross-licensing with Foreign 3G Patent Holders.

The 3G Intellectual Property Research SIG was officially established on 18 August 2006 owed to the efforts of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) entrusted by the Department of Industrial Technology, MOEA.  The SIG will pool together a total of 178 3G-technology patents owned by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, the Institute for Information Industry, the ITRI, and National Chiao Tung University and put them to public auction in October.

 

The objective is to grant exclusive licensing of the patents to Taiwanese mobile phone makers who will then pool the licensed patents together for cross-licensing negotiation with major foreign mobile phone makers including Nokia, Motorola, and 3GLL through the Consortium they form.  This arrangement is expected to create business opportunities for Taiwan’s wireless telecommunication industry.

 

According to the ITRI, 80% of the currently valid 3G-technology patents are held by major mobile phone makers such as Nokia and Motorola with the other 20% held in control by 3GLL, the collective body formed by the patentees of those patents.  With only a very limited number of key 3G patents issued to Taiwanese patentees, how will Taiwanese 3G patents holders negotiate patent licensing with major foreign players?  Thus the government decides to extend special financial support to local nonprofit-seeking corporate entities and academic institutes to license their successful R&D results to local mobile phone makers on a exclusive basis to strengthen their bargaining counter in patent licensing talks and reduce their royalty expenses.  (2006.07)

/EMA