When LTE was on the horizon, it was supposed to mark the dawn of a new era in the way fundamental mobile technology patents are licensed. The secretive bilateral deals between the handful of companies which had contributed most to the 2G, 3G and CDMA modem standards would be over, and the mobile industry would look more like WiFi, with new transparent licensing schemes and a reduction in the IPR cost burden on device makers. That didn’t happen of course. The strings of lawsuits which have taken place around LTE technologies, and the endless disputes about how standards-essential patents (SEP) should be licensed fairly, have led to very little change in the companies which control the core technologies, or the…