Spotlight: InterDigital

Few companies have seen as much technology change across the mobile space than InterDigital Inc., which for nearly 40 years has had a hand in developing the intellectual property for many of the advances that have propelled the industry. From its early years in developing technology TDMA-based digital technology and later with CDMA, InterDigital helped usher in the “2G” age of mobility. That innovation has continued with development of technology of 3G and current “4G” technologies.
Those advances and its focus on engineering talent have helped the company position itself as a critical link in the development of new technology. InterDigital CEO Bill Merritt provided some insight into how the company is currently positioned in the mobile space as well as advances it sees coming down the road.
RCR Wireless News: What is InterDigital’s core competency?
Bill Merritt: InterDigital develops fundamental wireless technologies that are at the core of mobile devices, networks, and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry’s most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks and a richer multimedia experience years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world’s leading wireless companies.
RCRWN: What technology does InterDigital contribute to mobile devices and how does that technology operate within a mobile device?
Merritt: For almost 40 years InterDigital has been a key contributor to the evolution of the wireless industry. We have a rich history of pioneering wireless technologies for advanced voice and data communications: when the rest of the world was working on analog, we were developing digital. When everyone focused on voice, we were working on data. While others pursued narrowband, we were demonstrating broadband. And as most companies are just beginning to wonder where 3G, WiMAX and Wi-Fi will go in the future, we are already delivering harmonizing solutions for seamless mobility between all standards.
Our inventions in wireless modem design, air interface technology, and end-to-end system architecture are the foundation of the wireless networks and devices used by billions of mobile users around the world today. Building on the company’s legacy of innovation, we continue to make contributions to the leading standards bodies that define tomorrow’s wireless networks.
InterDigital’s research and development efforts are guided by our vision of tomorrow’s “network of networks.” This envisions the seamless integration of advanced cellular systems with multiple communications networks, which include other air interfaces that intelligently and constantly connect people and things across a myriad of wide, local and personal area networks.
At the same time, InterDigital is addressing the wireless bandwidth crunch and network congestion, focusing on three comprehensive areas of bandwidth innovations: spectrum optimization, cross-network connectivity and mobility, and intelligent data delivery techniques. In simpler terms, you can think of it as bigger pipes, more pipes and better pipes.
To complement our internal R&D efforts, we build relationships with technology leaders within the wireless ecosystem and across the broadening domain of converged devices, networks and services worldwide.
RCRWN: How important is investment in mobile innovation and has the industry done enough?
Merritt: To meet the projections for the explosive global demand for wireless products and services, substantial technical breakthroughs and innovations will be required. We believe we’re only seeing the very beginning of this wireless revolution – many new companies are entering the arena – in fact, it is compelling that many of the top players in wireless today were not market participants as recently as a few years ago. The emerging markets for wireless consumer electronics, machine-to-machine and multimedia services bring increased technical complexity. This in turn will lead to unprecedented levels of innovation, creating further opportunities for pure play technology developers like InterDigital.
In 2010, InterDigital invested approximately $53 million in advanced wireless R&D. Across our innovation centers in King of Prussia, Penn.; Melville, N.Y.; San Diego; and Montreal we employ approximately 200 engineers of whom 80% hold advanced degrees.
RCRWN: Which markets does InterDigital see as growth opportunities going forward?
Merritt: The next generation in wireless will be characterized by the seamless integration of multiple communications networks, which include other air interfaces, that intelligently and constantly connect people and things across a myriad of wide, local and personal area networks.
Traditional networks were designed to connect people to people. Today, we are seeing the beginnings of people connecting to things and machine-to-machine communications, resulting in a dramatic expansion of data connections per person and the rapid rise of new industry players. However, the pieces are still highly complex, unorganized and disconnected.
Enabling a world that is seamlessly connected and fully integrated, with billions of subscribers and trillions of connections, represents a huge opportunity for innovations across several key areas:
–Dependable connections for everyone, everything and everywhere.
–Ultra-broadband, low latency, high capacity, and reliable coverage for limitless applications and flexible bandwidth management.
–QoS flexibility, balancing high throughput with low power, low cost, and small size, subject to application needs.
–Security and privacy, preventing misuse, tampering, malware, other unauthorized access and intelligent data routing.
–Making it work together, transparent and seamless to the user, regardless of network technologies, and with a sound business case for all players in the value chain.
RCRWN: What impact is the move to 4G technologies expected to have on InterDigital?
Ironically, LTE is expected to only bring temporary relief to the growing bandwidth crunch, as it is likely that it will ultimately be unable to meet increasing bandwidth requirements as even more consumers use new data-centric services and applications. Many industry analysts project a widening gap between user demand and system capacity, even after LTE is deployed. InterDigital is addressing the bandwidth crunch on several fronts. Our suite of technologies includes spectrum optimization, cross-network connectivity and mobility, and intelligent data delivery – what we call bigger pipes, more pipes, and better pipes. We believe that all these initiatives will ultimately enable the future “network of networks,” the seamless integration of multiple communications networks, both wired and wireless, which intelligently and constantly connect people and things across a myriad of applications and locations.
In fact, well before the first LTE standardization discussions in November 2004, InterDigital was already working to solve problems that would become relevant to efficient LTE deployments. In that regard, technical challenges for LTE and our solutions can be grouped into two categories. The first includes critical digital cellular technologies – such as power control, radio resource management, interference mitigation, multi-channel arrangements, roaming and hand-off techniques and control channels for efficient signaling – that InterDigital successfully tackled in 2G and 3G. Many of these elements are also mission-critical in LTE, and our engineers have developed, and will continue to develop, substantial technical enhancements and refinements in these areas, supporting faster, more reliable, more robust, and more efficient devices, networks and services.
We have also been working for a long time on a second category of new technologies that will first be introdu
ced in LTE, including: multi-input multi-output – commonly known as MIMO – technologies, multi-antenna configurations for reducing interference and increasing data rates; advanced OFDM, and SC-FDMA signaling techniques; hybrid-ARQ for fast error correction; and schemes for discontinuous reception that improve handset battery life. These types of new technologies will support the development of more efficient wireless networks, a richer multimedia experience and new mobile broadband capabilities for billions of users around the world.
RCRWN: Patent firms have on occasion received negative publicity. How would you defend against those that question a business model based on intellectual property?
Merritt: Recently we have seen a number of high-profile wireless patent cases in the news, yet the wireless patent landscape is still poorly understood by most. InterDigital has created and refined a very unique and robust invention process and a culture of contagious innovation. Unlike any other technology company, InterDigital is – in its purest form – in the “business of invention” that is characterized by its proven competency across five critical areas:
–Envision: Leverage in-depth knowledge of the industry and wireless ecosystem to anticipate what the future will look like and predict technology trends;
–Invent: Address the toughest technical challenges and develop breakthrough solutions that are both game-changing and practical;
–Protect: Write, organize and file patent applications to protect valuable inventions and prosecute the patent portfolio;
–Evangelize: Make inventions available to others by contributing to industry standards and building strategic relationships that accelerate the adoption of the technology across the entire industry;
–License: Negotiate mutually beneficial agreements with companies that benefit from the inventions by commercializing the technology in their products and services.
RCRWN: What sort of relationship does InterDigital have with those handset providers that must license technology?
Merritt: Among InterDigital’s licensees are many of the world’s leading brands and manufacturers. Throughout our history, we have established patent license agreements covering one or more standards with almost 40 manufacturers of wireless equipment including: Apple, LG, NEC, Sharp, Research in Motion, Ericsson, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.
Our know-how and inventions reach across virtually all mobile and wireless devices. InterDigital holds approximately 8,800 U.S. and foreign issued patents combined. In addition, we have almost 10,000 patent applications in process around the world. Our success in increasing the pace and breadth of our innovation business reflects our fundamental commitment to remain an industry leader in the creation of pioneering wireless technologies. We have a comprehensive program of developing and protecting our intellectual property through the worldwide filing and issuance of our patents.
InterDigital’s licensing practices are considered exemplary by licensing and industry experts. In 2006, in recognition of our licensing program success, InterDigital received the prestigious Licensing Achievement Award from the Licensing Executives Society. The company is also a founding member of the Innovation Alliance- a coalition of entrepreneurial companies seeking to enhance America’s innovation environment by improving the quality of patents granted and protecting the integrity of the U.S. patent system.