Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has become the latest firm to license patents through the recently launched Sisvel Wi-Fi Multimode pool.

Sisvel’s Wi-Fi licensing program was created to provide a one-stop shop for licensing standard essential patents for IEEE 802.11 technologies, including Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and Wi-Fi 7.

The group, set up by the international intellectual property management firm specializing in patent pools and headed by industry players, was set up to offer a fair playing field, helping manufacturers avoid individual negotiations with multiple patent holders.

HPE joined existing licensees Sony Group Corporation, Huawei, Panasonic, Philips, and ZTE. The latter four have also been awarded a licensor status along with KPN, Mitsubishi Electric, Orange, Aegis 11 SA (a Sisvel affiliate), SK Telecom, and Wilus.

With the latest addition of Wi-Fi 7, the program promises an efficient way to secure essential Wi-Fi rights for the coming years.

“We are delighted to welcome Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the latest licensee of the Sisvel Wi-Fi Multimode pool,” Meagan Leslie, legal and licensing counsel, who led the negotiation for Sisvel, explained. “We are grateful to the HPE team for the constructive way in which they engaged with us throughout. It was a tough negotiation, but one that produced a positive outcome for all the parties concerned.”

Amicable Sisvel-HPE negotiation

Heath Hoglund, chief IP officer of Sisvel, emphasized that the deal was reached amicably, calling it “a testament to the professionalism and skill of everyone concerned in the negotiation, but also a testament to the value of what the pool offers over an extended timeframe."

“I am confident that we will be welcoming further licensees in the near future,” Hoglund added.

Standard essential patents in the technology sector, like those for Wi-Fi, often come with high-stakes legal disputes over royalty rates. However, in the HPE case, the parties have bypassed the courtroom.

Sisvel recently launched the Wi-Fi Multimode patent pool, offering access to standard-essential patents, as set up in January. The program is the successor to Sisvel’s successful Wi-Fi 6 patent pool, which over three years closed agreements with nearly 40 companies, including Acer, Netgear, Cisco, and Hewlett Packard.

Giorgia Varvelli, who was named Wi-Fi Multimode program manager after holding the same role for the Wi-Fi 6 patent pool, said at the launch: “With this program, we continue to send a strong signal to the market: Wi-Fi innovation has value; and there is a transparent, efficient way to license essential rights. This will drive more R&D, more invention, and more advanced technologies.”

Sisvel recently launched a point of sale (POS) patent pool, covering 2G to 5G technology, with founder licensors Huawei, LG Electronics, and Nokia.

POS devices have advanced customer payment processing in developments such as handheld card machines and tablet-based registers. Increasingly, they also offer enhanced capabilities such as inventory management, real-time tracking, advanced analytics, and automatic re-ordering.

The three companies have now made their standard essential patents (SEPs) reading on cellularly connected POS devices available through the program, simplifying access to the technology.