Wireless patents Crown Jewels have expired.
Semiconductor partner portfolio is the perceived thing of value. Micron is a major player that is taking this all the way to courts and not agreeing to a nuisance settlement. None of the semi patents have been litigated to a jury trial.
Handpicked the best patents from the portfolio to target a major player.
The problem with semi patents or any patents that don't cover a "standard" is that it is very easy to prove non-infringement. They tend to fail at the SJ phase and never even make it to trial.
If the best patents can't win against Micron, then what is the value of the portfolio? What is the value of the team that assembled a feeble portfolio of non-standard essential patents?
I don't see how anyone looking at the portfolio could value it with the Micron case outstanding.
It is the only defendant of scale in the litigation pipeline. Everything else is a nuisance $1-3M target. The pipeline is dead. There is no way to achieve the $11-$26M WILan EBITDA target for 2023 without Micron.
Micron matters. If Micron fails, you have to write down the WiLan portfolio to 0 EBITDA for this year and next until they restart the pipeline (if they can find any contingency firms that will work with them given the horrendous track record in the last 18 months)
They've had more than 10 litigation losses in a row. Not sure how this ends any differently.