Sisvel’s vision is to support the innovation economy by generating rewards for innovators who invest in research and development and offer new technologies to the society and the market.
Sisvel generates rewards for innovators by realizing the value of such technologies through marketing activities typical of the Markets for Technology (transactions for the use, diffusion, and creation of technology): patent licensing. Through licensing, revenues from royalties for the use of patents can be re-invested in the company and in particular in new investments in innovation. This creates a self-sustaining cycle in which the fruits of previous innovation can fund new research, generating an inventive loop (the “Inventive Loop”) in which the intangible assets acquire a real economic value.
This business model of the Inventive Loop can ensure that innovators have a continuous flow of capital to support their development and growth through licensing.
The mission of the Sisvel Group is to contribute to the innovation ecosystem by realising the value of intellectual property rights and in particular patents. Sisvel strives to do so by:
- Fostering innovation and protecting Intellectual Property rights
- Facilitating access to new patented technologies
- Supporting the market in understanding the value of innovation
- Promoting a level-playing field and a healthy ecosystem for innovation and IP
- Producing innovative technical solutions that lead to new patents and commercially viable technologies
Sisvel fulfills its mission by:
- Representing third party patent owners
- Acquiring patents of reputable and innovative partners seeking a return on their investments
- Developing in-house technologies and patent portfolios, often in collaboration with R&D centers and universities
To ensure compliance with the law (and particularly with competition protection laws) it is arguably preferable to entrust a neutral party with the task of marketing intellectual property rights – one that cannot be influenced by certain behaviours that may cause distortion on the market. Such companies, who administer licensing activities of patent portfolios in a common technology space on behalf of several patent owners (“Licensing Administrators”), foster the creation of Joint Licensing Programs or Patent Pools that generate significant efficiencies in the market: Sisvel is a long standing, fully independent and market leading Licensing Administrator.
Applying the above model of the Inventive Loop to Licensing Administrators of Joint Licensing Programs or Patent Pools, consisting of a Licensing Administrator that manages patents of several independent patent owners, who consent to share their patents to be licensed to third parties on Fair, Reasonable and Non-discriminatory (“FRAND”) terms, produces a benefit for the entire sector (i.e. manufacturers, distributors and consumers) by sensibly reducing transaction costs. Licensing Administrators allow technology implementers to deal with a simplified offering for necessary intellectual property rights (“IPRs”), by offering a one-stop shop for several licenses (reducing transaction costs and also license fees), by giving certainty around the terms and conditions of the licenses and by providing transparency about the cost of technology adoption. Patent owners, who often do not have experience in marketing IPRs, can benefit from the know-how of the Licensing Administrator, both in terms of licencing and as reaction to forgery or Hold-Out strategies, providing an effective answer against free riders (“Free-Riders”). Free-Riders are companies that are willing to obtain an unfair – and unlawful – competitive advantage in the market, avoiding to recognise the value of the patented technologies they implement by not taking a license while others do (“Hold-Out” or “Hold-Out Strategy”). Free-Riders use excuses to delay as long as possible taking the necessary licenses, hoping that the delay will be indefinite and will never result in a license. Sisvel has a tested approach to licensing activities that is directed at reducing free-riding.
Sisvel not only continues to invest in the generation of rewards for innovators, risking its capital to prevent market asymmetries detrimental to the creation of a level-playing field, but has always been determined to play an increasing role in the Markets for Technology: already ten years ago Sisvel made investments to expand its contributions to a broader portion of the innovation value chain. With the creation of Sisvel Technologies back in 2008, Sisvel has been able to offer unparalleled support to innovators and implementers, thanks to its ability to assist in the technical aspects of licensing activities. For further details visit http://www.sisveltech.com/.
How Sisvel approaches negotiations
The processes used by Sisvel in its licensing activities are developed and refined over almost 40 years, with a particular attention to allow fast adoption of licenses by implementers, also by providing ample information upfront and transparently, summarized as follows:
A) Background
A licensing offer follows an investigation into a potentially infringing company. Such company may have been identified by sophisticated business intelligence, market research analysis, a request from a company for further information on a specific licensing program/programs or an application for a license by an implementer of the technology.
This investigation will include collection and assessment of relevant data about the company.
B) The license offer/ notification of infringement
The licensing process begins when a company is notified of its infringement of the patents under offer from Sisvel. This is done normally by sending an email or a letter including information on the patents under offer with a link to the patent lists and references to the standards in question. Notification of infringement and a license offer with the terms and conditions is made, considering a requirement of a licensor when offering for license SEP patents.
Sisvel may have access to the personal data of the relevant contact persons, employees, shareholders, directors, legal representatives, or advisors of the potential licensees. As informed, these personal data managed by Sisvel’s licensing professionals, will be processed by Sisvel International S.A. located at 6, Avenue Marie Thérèse 2132 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and VAT number: LU23037240 for the purpose of contacting the relevant contact persons of the potential licensees regarding the specific licensing programs about potential patent infringements of our clients' rights. The basis of legitimacy is the legitimate interest of Sisvel in avoiding unauthorized and illegal use of patented technology, which might happen unwillingly, ensuring a level playing field amongst competitors and safeguarding the rights of our clients with whom we have a contractual relationship. In certain cases, Sisvel may pass on your data to our suppliers, but under no circumstances they will process the data for their own purposes. In the event of international data transfers, Sisvel will always take the appropriate measures to ensure that such communication is carried out in accordance with the regulations in force. Any personal data provided to Sisvel will be processed for the period necessary to process the specific licensing discussion. At the end of this period, Sisvel may retain data to comply with applicable legal obligations. At any time, the data subjects can exercise their data protection rights referred to in Articles 12, 15 to 22 of EU Regulation 2016/679 by sending an email with the reference "Personal Data" to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
C) The next stages
Following the license offer/notification of infringement (as well as any subsequent reminder/ follow up letters), several other documents related to the license program under discussion are normally shared. These include royalty statement forms, patent brochures (referenced in the license offer/notice letter), patent owner declarations, exemplary patent claim chart documents and a draft license agreement (available on the Sisvel website or on request).
The aforementioned license program documents are often publicly available on our website and are referenced and clearly linked in the communications sent by Sisvel and are, of course, offered as a company requests them. Typically, they will be requested in the initial replies from a company to Sisvel. While these documents constitute what Sisvel considered or continues to consider a complete license offer, making clear the full terms and conditions as well as full information of the patents under offer and nature of infringement at the time of the license offer, we experience an increasing volume of information requests either not directly related to the license offer or outside the scope of what we consider to be reasonable requests pertaining to a SEP license negotiation.
At Sisvel, we strictly adhere to applicable laws, and elements of jurisprudence, as well as guidelines, and national/ and supra-national policies relevant to our business, is an absolute must and it is essential trying to foster a climate of respect for towards our operational prerogatives, as well as the interest rights as well as the ones of our partners and clients. Therefore, Sisvel is committed to provide to its counterparts a give honest, thorough, accurate and transparent proper, and precise output of data in the reports that we submit to the relevant authorities and that we share with our partners and clients. We strive to help third parties to achieve the highest protection for their intellectual property rights (“IP”) as warranted by the applicable law in the jurisdictions in which we operate various laws in the markets in which we operate. We do believe promote the concept that the monetization of IP, rights based on the principles set forth herein, serves the innovation life cycle of innovation by and generates generating a fair return for on the investments made by innovators, thus which we consider to be a fundamental principle to making e innovations inventions available for the good of society. Accordingly, policies and procedures are an important aspect of our business as we believe they keep us on track and thus enable us to offer the best possible support to our many business partners and at the same time enable us in our outreach to the international marketplace. We always keep our mission in mind and after almost 40 years this has changed very little, we try to create a healthy innovation ecosystem wherein innovators are fairly rewarded and incentivized to continue innovating, and manufacturers are encouraged to behave as good corporate IP citizens enabled to offer their products to their clients with minimal disruption in the marketplace. Sisvel believes that licensing policies need to reflect a true level playing field, where parties engage in good faith licensing negotiations aimed at reaching fair, reasonable and balanced outcomes for all the parties involved. While our vision is a vibrant innovation ecosystem that can continuously increase the pace of technological progress.