IPXI® Announces Multi-Party Offering for Wireless Communications Standard Essential Patents

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CHICAGO, Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc. (IPXI), the world's first financial exchange for licensing and trading intellectual property (IP) rights, today announced a multi-party offering for standard essential patents (SEPs) involving the world's most widely adopted standard protocol for wireless technology.  The offering of Unit License Right™ (ULR™) contracts is based on patent rights from eight organizations -- including leading consumer electronics and telecommunications companies, universities and research laboratories -- whose rights are considered essential to the IEEE 802.11n standard for higher throughput in wireless local area network (WLAN) communications.

The patent contributors to the 802.11n multi-party offering are:

• Columbia University
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
• JVCKENWOOD Corporation
• Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
• Orange S.A.
• Sony Corporation
• University of California

The offering includes nearly 200 essential patents issued in nearly 20 countries. Each ULR contract provides a non-exclusive license under the patents for the manufacturing and sale of 1,000 wireless chipsets.

Wireless chipsets that comply with the 802.11n standard are found in popular products such as smart phones, tablets, personal computers, access points, routers and gateways. These chipsets are necessary components of wireless network technology, and compliance with the standard promotes device interoperability. According to analysis performed by IPXI on data provided by International Data Corporation (IDC), a leading technology market research firm, by the end of 2019 approximately 8 billion wireless chipsets compliant with the IEEE 802.11n Standard will have been manufactured or sold in countries covered by the SEPs in the 802.11n multi-party offering.

The offering is structured as a series of convertible ULR contracts, allowing additional owners of 802.11n essential patents to join the offering in the future. 

Early purchasers of Series 1 ULR contracts can take advantage of IPXI's 802.11n amnesty program, which provides the purchasers a release from liability for past use of the SEPs at a significant discount.  Additionally, Series 1 purchasers will be able to convert unused Series 1 ULR contracts to a later series at a reduced price and, for used Series 1 ULR contracts, obtain a release from liability without additional payment. 

IPXI's approach to standards-based licensing has attracted interest from other 802.11n SEP owners seeking a solution to their RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing obligations. IPXI is now accepting submissions from additional patent owners for upcoming offerings in the series.

IPXI President and Chief Executive Officer Gerard Pannekoek said: "Licensing standard essential patents from multiple patent owners through a pooled ULR contract will have a significant positive effect on decreasing transaction costs for technology implementers while promoting the wider adoption of a technology. This offering marks a milestone for SEP licensing, establishing a new paradigm for compliance with RAND requirements. IPXI's standardized contracts offered on a non-discriminatory basis and with market-based pricing are ideally suited to resolve the many issues involved with determining RAND compliance through bilateral negotiations."

A data room, with due diligence documents related to the offering, is accessible from the IPXI website.

About IPXI

IPXI is the world's first financial exchange for licensing and trading intellectual property rights. The mission of IPXI is to meet the price discovery, transaction efficiency and data distribution needs of intellectual property owners, investors and traders by creating the central marketplace for tradable IP assets. IPXI is funded by a group of U.S. and European investors, including CBOE Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBOE) and Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Philips) (NYSE: PHG). IPXI members include some of the world's leading innovative corporations and most prestigious universities and national laboratories. Among the IPXI members are: Ford Global Technologies, LLC; Philips Intellectual Property & Standards;  JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.; Sony Corporation of America; Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America; the Regents of the University of California; Columbia Technology Ventures; Northwestern University; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. For more information on IPXI, please see the Exchange Fact Sheet or visit www.ipxi.com.

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SOURCE Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc. (IPXI)