S1 - Global Standards Leadership Conference 2025 - What is the Value of 5G?

LexisNexis IP Managing Director for the Americas, Tim Pohlmann, opened the GSLC 2025 with a powerful message highlighting the importance of uniting the industry to address the key challenges and opportunities ahead. He emphasized that global standards are vital levers for economic resilience, interoperability, and technological leadership. As industries become increasingly interconnected, standards provide the essential framework that enables diverse technologies to communicate, scale, and integrate seamlessly.

What is the Value of 5G?
The conference’s opening panel, moderated by Justus Baron, Founder of BRELA Research, addressed a fundamental question in SEP licensing: What is the value of a standard? The discussion centered on the principle that companies investing heavily in standard development are entitled to a fair return on that investment—an outcome essential to sustaining innovation and incentivizing continued participation in future technology generations. Panelists Tejas Shah, Senior Director of Licensing at InterDigital; Thomas Pease, Partner at Greenberg Traurig; Jon Putnam, Founder and Principal of Competition Dynamics; and Timothy Simcoe, Professor at Boston University, explored various perspectives on how to define and quantify fair returns. They emphasized that while pricing is one aspect, the broader concept of value—capturing the technical and economic contributions of 5G to the end product—must be considered in determining fair and reasonable licensing terms.