Patent licencing firm MOSAID Technologies has announced that it has acquired Core Wireless Licensing, a Luxembourg company that holds a portfolio of 400 patent families. These patent families consist of around 2000 wireless patents and patent applications, originally filed by Nokia. Core Wireless will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of MOSAID.

The patents and patent applications cover technologies used in a wide range of mobile communications devices and services. A hundred of the patent families, consisting of about 1200 patents and applications, have been declared essential to second, third as well as fourth-generation communications standards.

These includes GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications), UMTS / WCDMA (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service / Wide-Band Code Division Multiple Access) and LTE (Long Term Evolution). The rest of the portfolio consists of approx. 800 wireless implementation patents.

Many fingers in this patent pie

Based on the terms of the agreement MOSAID will fund its acquisition of the portfolio via  royalties, obtained from future licensing and enforcement (patent lawsuit) revenues. Core Wireless will retain one-third of gross royalties and will bear all of the costs associated with their administration, licensing, enforcement and monetisation. According to ZDNet, MOSAID is slicing  the licensing revenues pie in three parts, splitting it between Nokia, Microsoft and itself.

Microsoft is part of the deal as it managed to secure a license to the Nokia patents, which has now been acquired by MOSAID. The Redmond-based company possesses a “passive economic interest” in the revenue obtained from the licensing of these patents to third parties.

"This is a transformative event for MOSAID which will drive significant revenue growth and shareholder value over the next decade, and will create exciting new opportunities for MOSAID as one of the world's premier licensing organizations," said John Lindgren, president and CEO, MOSAID Technologies.

MOSAID Technologies is of the opinion that revenues obtained from licensing, enforcing and monetising this wireless portfolio, will assist it in surpassing the company's total revenues since its formation in 1975.

"This is one of the strongest standards-essential wireless portfolios available on the market, and we are thrilled that we have acquired this outstanding portfolio and have the opportunity to monetize it," stated Lindgren.