Intel recently announced that Apple will buy the majority of Intel’s Modem business for $1 billion.  Intel’s modem business currently has about 6,000 assets relating to 3G, 4G, and 5G cellular standards and 1,700 assets relating to the wireless implementation of cellular standards. According to IAM, Intel is hoping to sell these patents separately from the smartphone modem business, although a prospective buyer may well seek to acquire both the patent assets and Intel’s smartphone modem business.

More recent news reports suggest that Intel has taken the assets off the market as a single bidder has emerged. But this begs the question of who is or should be bidding on these Intel assets. Complicating the question of who is interested, or should be interested, in the Intel patent assets is the fact that the acquirer may not obtain the smartphone modem business, which would suggest a sale to either a non-practicing entity or to one of the few large corporations that already have an ongoing business unit in the 5G space.

Join Gene Quinn, President, and CEO of IPWatchdog, Inc, on TUESDAY, July 30, 2019, at 12:00 pm (noon) EDT, for a wide-ranging conversation about Intel’s patent asset sale. Our conversation will cover the strength of Intel’s 3G, 4G and 5G cellular standard related patents, as well as the strength of Intel’s wireless patents. We will discuss the possible suitors, as well as what this deal could mean for the 5G landscape. Joining Gene will be Kim Chotkowski, Vice President and Head of Licensing Strategy and Operations for InterDigital, Inc., and William Mansfield, Head of Consulting and Customer Success at LexisNexis PatentSight.