There is an increasing move to isolate patents and the licensing activities associated with them into separate businesses to protect those assets and remove them from risk in the event of litigation against the firm's core businesses. This is particularly important for firms that own "essential patents" - patents that are the standards on which new technologies and industries are built. In Qualcomm's case, its CDMA patents.
The latest move by Qualcomm to create a dedicated business unit to hold its patents sheds light on why firms chose this path.
Here's the latest courtesy of
PC World and the
Wall Street Journal if you have access to their paid content on the CIO Journal.
