Nokia and Sisvel: Evolution of the Patent Troll?

Nokia has sold off over 450 patents to Sisvel, a company infamous in tech circles for aggressive action against IP ‘infringers’ -- up to and including getting German police to raid booths at trade shows. Obviously a patent troll of the worst variety, right? Well, a number of apologists swear that there’s more going on than the headlines might suggest: Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms (FRAND), for instance.

According to a Jan 12 press release, Sisvel has acquired “47 patent families comprised of more than 450 patents and applications originally filed by Nokia. The patents and patent applications cover technologies used in a wide range of mobile communications devices and services.” Nokia is hanging on to existing licensing deals, making some undisclosed amount of money in the sale, and (if many of the armchair tech comments can be believed) keeping their good name away from any nasty resulting litigation. That latter statement may or may not be true, but it does seem to be an increasingly popular strategy.

Sisvel, in turn, gets a stake in some potentially valuable “video optimization” patents... but the real prize is more than 350 “essential” cellular and LTE patents. “‘Sisvel has been extremely active in recent years working with the wireless industry to provide simplified access to essential wireless patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory, or FRAND, conditions,’ said Giustino de Sanctis, CEO of Sisvel International.” One could certainly call the company “extremely active” at CeBIT 2010, where dozens of armed German police in bulletproof vests were called in to halt the verboten presentation of Taiwanese manufacturer FirstView’s cheap Android tablets.

This was not the first time; while zealously guarding the Philips MP3 license, Sisvel retained the services of the German Public Prosecutor’s Office for a raid of SanDisk’s booth at IFA 2006, and used customs officials to halt Thomson’s products one year earlier. The resulting litigation saw a Berlin judge call the company’s actions “illegal” and earned Sisvel the distinction of “Europe's most notorious patent troll." But wait -- Sisvel is absolutely NOT a patent troll, according to both The Register and Forbes. Or, rather, “if the company is a troll then it's a big friendly troll offering FRAND licences to anyone who wants one,” writes Bill Ray for El Reg.

On the one hand, it’s a solid point; the whole purpose of FRAND licenses are to prevent essential standards-based patents from being used in a monopolistic, anti-competitive way. This is a clear win for those who believe that the right to sue is a basic guarantee of continued growth and innovation for all. Everybody seems to agree that Sisvel is a patent troll, but the term itself seems to be undergoing some rehabilitation. Forbes contributor Tim Worstall calls Sisvel “the Patent Troll we Actually Like” (apparently speaking on behalf of Forbes in toto), and refers to the company’s services as “obviously beneficial”: “Perhaps this is a good example of how we know absolutely that the current patent system is a mess: that we seem to need an intermediary like Sisvel,” writes Worstall, whose command of the written word is every bit as flawless as his reasoning. “But given that mess it’s rather good that we’ve got one.”

In other words, Sisvel isn’t really a criminal -- just a product of its environment. I’m convinced; if there’s anything that the tech world really needs more of, it’s a non-manufacturing company with bureaucratic savvy -- one who knows when to send in more lawyers, and when to send in men with guns. Step three: profit.