Pendrell, a fully integrated intellectual property (IP) investment, advisory services, and asset management firm, announced it has acquired several fundamental patent portfolios from Nokia. The portfolios include a broad range of fundamental memory technologies for electronic devices, consisting of 125 patents and patent applications across the globe. Nokia has declared 81 patents within the acquisition as essential to applicable standards.
Over 15 years of pioneering research and development by Nokia are represented within the global patent portfolios, including secure digital cards, embedded flash, and universal flash storage capabilities. The global market for these combined memory technologies is projected to exceed $12 billion in 2013, and industry analysts project just the SD market to exceed $21 billion in 2018.
Pendrell will further the innovative efforts initiated by Nokia and enable more widespread use of these technologies via a global licensing program within a new wholly owned subsidiary, Helsinki Memory Technologies, Oy (HMT), created solely for these purposes. After the acquisition is completed, Nokia will receive a license for every patent passed to HMT, as well as for every new IP developed by HMT. A portion of the proceeds from patent licensing regarding the acquired memory portfolios will be reinvested to fund ongoing innovation.
"Our acquisition of these Nokia patents together with the formation of Helsinki Memory Technologies uniquely illustrates the deep connection that strong, transferrable and enforceable IP rights have with promoting investment in research and development," commented Joseph Siino , chief intellectual property officer for Pendrell. "As with our other portfolios, the patents we have acquired from Nokia provide the basis for ongoing innovation, and also allow us to offer these inventions to IP-respecting companies worldwide on fair and reasonable terms."
Nokia has been a pioneer in the development and evolution of portable and embedded memory technologies, which are used in an estimated 8,000 different consumer electronics devices by more than 400 brands worldwide, including mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, tablets, digital cameras, video recorders, printers, set top boxes, and others. Furthermore, these particular portfolios represent an important portion of all patents that are relevant to the field, representing inventions currently in use as well as those that are essential for the next generation of memory standards that are on the horizon.
"We are pleased that our patent sale to Pendrell has enabled the launch of Helsinki Memory Technologies here in Finland to continue the fundamental research and development work that Nokia has done over the past fifteen years," commented Paul Melin, chief intellectual property officer for Nokia. "We expect that Pendrell's world-class expertise in IP strategy and licensing will also create a meaningful path to further commercialization of these technologies, with proceeds enabling continuing investment in R&D by Helsinki Memory Technologies."
Helsinki Memory Technologies' R&D program will be based in Finland and will be led by Kimmo Mylly, an award-winning senior technologist and inventor who previously led Nokia's memory technologies program. Mr. Mylly previously chaired an industry-wide task group whose work led to the adoption of standards relating to memory storage for portable devices.
"The opportunity to acquire technologies as foundational and relevant as those represented by these portfolios is rare. This acquisition represents a unique opportunity to expand our licensing initiatives, as these patents are relatively unencumbered, only a handful of IP portfolios cover these technologies globally, and an established licensing ecosystem is already in place," said Mario Obeidat , vice president of licensing for Pendrell.
For further information, please visit www.pendrell.com
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