Laurie Fitzgerald tells the story of how she led Avanci to an 8-year overnight success. Avanci’s pioneering efforts to provide an efficient, simpler option for the automotive industry to license cellular SEPs are now widely heralded as one of the greatest stories of successful innovation in the patent world. Laurie, who has been with Avanci since 2018, shares her journey and the strategic decisions behind the one-stop shop licensing platform that now boasts participation from 70 licensors and 100 automotive brands.
The discussion highlights how Avanci navigated the complexities of linking cellular innovators with automotive manufacturers, detailing how they established a uniform licensing fee and why this model works efficiently for both licensors and licensees. They discuss the role of independent patent evaluations, the challenges of negotiating acceptable agreements among varied stakeholders, the process for determining royalty allocations, and what others can learn from Avanci about how the private sector can provide efficient solutions for SEP licensing.
Timestamp Summary
0:00 Laurie Fitzgerald's Journey to Avanci Vehicle's Licensing Success
2:32 Understanding Standard Essential Patents and Their Global Importance
6:33 The Intersection of Cellular Technology and Automotive Industry
11:55 Balancing Licensing Efficiency and Value in Vehicle Connectivity
16:30 Challenges and Successes in Automotive Patent Licensing
27:59 Balancing Royalty Allocation in Avonsi's Licensing System
39:49 Fixed Licensing Fees for 4G and 5G Vehicle Connectivity
46:53 Avanci's Role in Patent Licensing
Notable, Quotable
The idea of Avanci
"To be honest, I didn't know it was going to work . . . But I really wanted it to work because I believed in the idea. So I had spent more than a decade working as a trial lawyer, involved in litigations that were about standard essential patents . . . And I started to think, even before I'd heard of Avanci, there has to be a better way to do this that doesn't involve litigation. All of these transaction costs and the time and the people."
The secret sauce of Avanci
“I think what we needed to do to make it work is we had to find the right set of licensing terms. That's the secret sauce. There's two agreements that you have to get right. One is the form agreement, the one that all the licensees are offered and that they execute. But then the other, maybe the more important in some ways, because it's what gets you started, is the agreement between the patent owners.”
Why Avanci’s licensing fee is not tied to cost of vehicle
"The value of the connectivity doesn't change based on who pays for the license."
EU’s proposed SEP regulations
"The most important thing when I think about it is that to make clear that Avanci shares the same goals as the [European] Commission, which I understand to be making SEP licensing simpler, more transparent, more efficient."
Sign of auto manufacturers’ relationship with Avanci
"No one has to stay when you're a licensor. [When] you join, you can leave. We haven't had anyone leave."
Avanci Vehicle President Laurie Fitzgerald on Building SEP's Field of Dreams