Here's the second "Japanese" story in a row (the first one was about the JFTC's market study report on mobile ecosystems):
Roughly six months after Sisvel announced the launch of a WiFi 6 standard-essential patent (SEP) pool, the initial group of licensors (notably including--among others--Huawei, Philips, Panasonic, and MediaTek) has been joined by another rather significant patent holder: Mitsubishi Electric.
The announcement was made today. About 24 hours earlier, Sisvel announced that Chinese 5G fabless chipset maker UNISOC joined its 5G Multimode patent pool for smartphones and other consumer electronics products. Mitsubishi is one of the founding licensors of that 5G pool.
Last month, Sisvel president Mattia Fogliacco participated in a Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) webinar on WiFi 6 patent licensing that was moderated by the largest contributor to this pool, Huawei's IP chief Alan Fan. The message was that infringement litigation should be very limited, but it is up to implementers to seize the opportunity to save license fees by signing up early.
This blog will continue to stay on top of significant announcements relating to wireless and video codec patent pools--as well as enforcement actions. There will be a WiFi 6 SEP infringement trial in Munich next month that I plan to report on.
