Company: IDCC
Filing Date: 2025-02-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001405495-25-000011
Chunk: 59

Company: InterDigital, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 59
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 decide to set or otherwise determine the FRAND consistency of such terms or the manner in which such terms are determined, including by determining a worldwide royalty for our SEPs. Changes to or clarifications of our obligations to be prepared to offer licenses to SEPs on FRAND terms and conditions could require such terms, including our royalties, to be determined through third party adjudications. Finally, we and certain of our current and prospective licensees have initiated, and we and others could in the future initiate, legal proceedings or regulatory proceedings requesting third party adjudicators or regulators to set FRAND terms and conditions for a worldwide license to our SEPs, or to determine the FRAND-consistency of current terms and conditions in our patent license agreements. Chinese courts have affirmed their position that in certain SEP licensing disputes, Chinese courts can set worldwide royalties, and in December 2023, one such court issued such a decision setting a worldwide royalty for Nokia’s cellular patents. We have faced similar proceedings with OPPO in China to determine a worldwide royalty for certain of our SEPs as well as royalty-setting proceedings in the UK initiated by Lenovo and Tesla. If any court or arbitration tribunal decision sets a worldwide royalty rate that is unfavorable to us, our standard essential patent portfolio could be significantly devalued as it relates to the FRAND royalty an implementer should pay, which could in turn negatively impact pricing with other licensees. 

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To the extent that our patent royalties for our patent license agreements are determined through arbitration or other third party adjudications or regulatory or court proceedings rather than through bilateral negotiations, because such proceedings are inherently unpredictable and uncertain and there are currently few precedents for such determinations, it is possible that royalties may be lower than our accounting estimates and/or comparable licenses. This could also have a negative impact on royalties we are able to obtain from future licensees, which may have an adverse effect on our revenue and cash flow. Prospective customers may delay, and in some cases have delayed, negotiations on the basis of an adverse decision. In addition, to the extent that other terms and conditions for our patent license agreements are determined through such means, such terms and conditions could be less favorable than our historical terms and conditions, which could have an adverse effect on our licensing business more broadly. 

We could continue to be involved in a number of costly litigation, arbitration and administrative proceedings to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights and to defend our licensing practices.

Although we always seek to enter into licenses through bi-lateral negotiations,