Sisvel Wi-Fi 6 patent pool sees licensee surge
Numbers have more than doubled over the past six months as implementers embrace the programme's value proposition
By Giorgia Varvelli, Wi-Fi 6 programme manager
Sisvel’s Wi-Fi 6 patent pool is firing on all cylinders. Since the start of 2023’s fourth quarter, we have closed 11 pool licensing agreements, more than doubling our number of licensees to 21.
This string of successful deals is the product of many months spent explaining our value proposition to the market since the programme’s launch in July 2022. As Wi-Fi 6 has become the dominant WLAN technology, device makers have gravitated towards our pool licence offering, which provides access to some of the strongest patent portfolios in the space.
The 11 agreements we have concluded since last October indicate that our licence terms are regarded as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND), and that our programme facilitates significant transactional efficiencies compared to negotiating with each of our patent owners individually.
Crucially, the pool and our participating patent owners have agreed to licences with players who represent a significant share of global Wi-Fi 6 sales volumes. We track this with a metric we call Licensable Market Penetration (LMP). This measures the proportion of Wi-Fi 6 products on the market that are licensed to patents included in the Wi-Fi 6 pool.
For the fourth quarter of 2023, the LMP for Wi-Fi 6 stood at nearly 20%. This is a strong testament to the market’s growing acceptance of our pool offer, as well as the successful bilateral licensing efforts of our pool members.
While we gain traction among implementers, we are also in active discussions to bring more patent owners on board. These are progressing positively and we hope to welcome at least one more well-known Wi-Fi 6 technology innovator to the pool in the near future. As the commercial acceptance of our efficient licensing solution becomes increasingly clear, we look forward to engaging with more patent owners in the space.
Wi-Fi 6 unlocks significant value for all stakeholders in the wireless networking ecosystem. We are proud to have developed a pool that meets the needs of both technology developers and standard implementers, and which is supporting the innovation that will power future generations of Wi-Fi.
