Handset Manufacturers Will Benefit From Access to Essential Patents at Reasonable Royalty Rates

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- SISVEL CDMA2000, LLC, today launched a new joint patent licensing program, or patent pool, offering a license to essential CDMA2000 patents to all users on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The portfolio of essential CDMA2000 patents included in the program are owned by France Telecom; Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation; NTT DOCOMO, INC.; Royal KPN N.V.; and Siemens AG. SISVEL will act on behalf of the patent owners as licensing administrator for the program.

The new program offers the industry the ability to adjust the scope of their rights to the CDMA2000 portfolio, which encompasses a broad range of technology for cellular telephones and other mobile broadband devices, based on a standard license for all core functions and a list of optional functions that each licensee may select. The royalty rate for all included functions under any license is only US$ 0.05 per patent family per unit, up to a cap of US$ 0.50 per unit for products that include the 1x-RTT air interface but have no EV-DO functionality, and a cap of US$ 1.00 per unit for products that include the EV-DO air interface.

The joint license makes essential CDMA2000 patents more easily accessible and ensures that all users of this widely adopted technology will benefit from the flexibility and practicality of the license terms available under this new program.

The joint CDMA2000 licensing program remains open to additional patent owners, and SISVEL invites all parties with patents believed to be essential to the CDMA2000 standard to contact SISVEL and submit those patent(s) for an evaluation of essentiality by the program's designated, independent patent evaluator.

About CDMA2000

CDMA2000 represents a family of ITU-approved, IMT-2000 (3G) standards and includes CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) technologies. They deliver increased network capacity to meet growing demand for wireless services and high-speed data services. For more information on CDMA2000 standards, please refer to http://www.3gpp2.org/Public_html/specs/index.cfm. The approved 3gpp2 output documents are converted into standards by each of the Project's Organizational Partners (ARIB, CCSA, TIA, TTA, and TTC).

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), and Germany (Sisvel Germany in Stuttgart), and with more than seventy 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). Most recently SISVEL has been appointed as the administrator of patent pools for the UHF-RFID and DVB-T standards.

For additional information regarding CDMA2000 or Sisvel, please visit www.sisvel.com.

SOURCE Sisvel US, Inc.

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