Almost exactly a year ago, Eeva Hakoranta announced she was stepping down from her role as Chief Licensing Officer at InterDigital (April 7, 2025 ip fray article). The announcement came as a surprise to the industry, as she had left an extremely successful legacy at the company, where she helped achieve a number of victories: settling its long-running disputes with Lenovo (October 9, 2024 ip fray article) and Oppo (October 29 2024, ip fray article), facilitating the renewal of deals with both Apple and Samsung (January 16, 2024 ip fray article) without litigation and striking new licensing agreements with Panasonic (August 1, 2024 InterDigital press release), Google (July 2, 2024 InterDigital press release), and Samsung Electronics (January 16, 2024 InterDigital press release).
At Via Licensing Alliance’s (Via’s) Business Summit in Rome (March 20, 2026 ip fray article), Ms. Hakoranta spoke to ip fray about why she stepped down from her role, where she is headed next, her biggest career highlights, and some of the obstacles (such as the glass ceiling) she has had to overcome as a woman in IP.
A rich legacy
There was no singular reason why Ms. Hakoranta stepped down from her role last April. After her intense and gratifying five-year term as Chief Licensing Officer at InterDigital, she faced some health concerns and realised that her family needed her energy much more than anyone else. “I was very tired and drained, too, and needed a break,” she adds.
But she has been closely following her successor, Julia Mattis, and her team, since her departure because, in her words, she had given everything to the company:
“I think they have been doing very well and I am so proud of them. I can see that some of the things that I cared for and found very important are living in their execution and their activities. I am sure they have changed a lot after me, but the consistency of FRAND licensing and hands-on involvement in enforcement is what I always highlighted for the team and I think they are doing very well.”
Part of the rich legacy Ms. Hakoranta left behind was that the company had managed to renew the contracts with its two largest licensees, Apple and Samsung, when those contracts were up for renewal in recent years, and agree on arbitration with Samsung for determining the royalties, which allowed the company to recognize revenue for this license. However, that changed this year after Samsung filed a request to the International Chamber of Commerce seeking to challenge previously determined royalties of $1.05 billion set by an arbitration panel (February 10, 2026 ip fray article).
Ms. Hakoranta observes the high level of enforcement that InterDigital has been involved in. This, she believes, has been partly inevitable because the company is entering a new industry (the streaming space: March 4, 2026 ip fray article), but it has also not had an easy time in the smartphone space (Transsion: October 31, 2025 ip fray article) and the TV space (Hisense: February 12, 2026 ip fray article and TCL: February 10, 2026 ip fray article).
“It’s tough for any team to be able to coordinate across different jurisdictions in global campaigns, let alone if you have multiple campaigns, but the InterDigital team is very professional and capable,” she comments. “I believe periodically every significant licensor will need to go through high enforcement levels as the market is testing the strength of its portfolio and its enforcement capability.”
‘The [IP] spark is still there’
Since stepping down, Ms. Hakoranta has been working with the family businesses and prioritising time at home. She has been enjoying a “well-deserved break” but keeping busy with work that has “very much nothing to do with IP”, she smiles.
However, there is no doubt that Ms. Hakoranta will return to IP.
“I miss the community and I believe the community misses me – at least a little” she says, noting that she has already started gearing up work selectively with contacts she has in the industry, as she hopes to do some work in IP consultancy – or where she can really make an impact. Her plans are not firm yet, though, as while she enjoys the freedom of being able to choose and shape her own schedule, she is not ruling out any type of role. “I am not retiring yet… the spark is still there,” she adds.
Prior to her time at InterDigital, Ms. Hakoranta was at Nokia for 14 years – starting off as director of IPR Legal and working her way up to Senior Vice President and Head of IP. She also worked in private practice at Finland-based law firm, Roschier, before joining Nokia.
While she is not ready to hang up her hat yet, Ms. Hakoranta shared three of the biggest highlights in her career in IP so far:
- Her impact at Nokia: When their licensing program was starting to grow and she was head of licensing between 2012 and 2019, she notes that it was “truly gratifying” to see herself able to inspire a team of people to work together and reach “brilliant results”.
- Bringing/continuing that same impact at InterDigital: Being able to bring that same energy and make that same impact despite it being a different environment, with different people, and assets was also gratifying, she notes. “There is something there that inspires people and makes an impact,” she says.
- Her influence on the best practices in the FRAND licensing market: She has seen through a lot of licensing negotiations and had a very hands-on approach to related enforcement activities, thereby shaping market practices. For instance, in the Chinese anti-suit injunction case that InterDigital faced, she, together with the team, helped raise awareness in the Indian and German courts, among others. InterDigital was, at the time, a smaller U.S. firm and had previously experienced some challenges in China so it was perhaps viewed as an easy target seeking an anti-suit injunction. “But we rose to the challenge and we really fought back hard,” she says. Prior to that experience with InterDigital, she had been influential in certain anti-suit actions on behalf of Nokia related to its automotive licensing aspirations. Since those days, anti-suit injunctions have generally not been welcome in the FRAND space. “It is a remarkable achievement by a team to shape best practices. Now we need to deal with the UK interim licenses well.” She says she is following the various enforcement actions with great interest.
Balancing demand and empathy
But of course her career has not all been rainbows and butterflies either. She notes it has been a lot of hard work and overcoming many disappointments and turning those to positives.
One major obstacle she has had to overcome is the perception that many in the industry have had of her being frightening and demanding.
During one of her roles at Nokia, she was made the “guardian” of patent transactions that came into the company through the back door, which she often had to say no to. This resulted in people viewing her as someone without empathy. “I have also been called demanding and frightening,” she adds. “One of my mentees in Nokia admitted she was scared of me and decided to “take the bull by the horns” and ask me to be her mentor. We became very close and she discovered I am actually a very empathetic person”.
But many of Ms. Hakoranta’s peers and subordinates have called her leadership style fair. She describes it as “people first leadership” based on trust, respect, and “achieving together”:
“I am demanding, and I strive for excellence, but I am also supportive – because one thing that is crucial for creating a high-performing team is creating an environment of psychological safety.”
That, she believes, does not happen without trust and respect. “Plus,” she adds, “in all the interactions where people get to know me better, they can see that I have a lot of empathy.”
While some view empathy as a weakness, she believes it gives one the ability to put oneself in another person’s shoes – which is what ultimately helped make the IP dealmaking process so successful for her.
Ms. Hakoranta notes that she has had a number of women come up to her during conferences, telling her that she gave them hope. “They saw me as a woman who had been able to rise into a senior position in a male-dominated IP world,” she says.
But, she recalls, one of her most “profound disappointments” was when, during her role in private practice, she realized the firm assumed – without discussing with her first – that after she started to take her maternity leave, she would not want to pursue a more ambitious career.
“I lived during a time when there were not very many women as law firm partners, so yes, I have been bumping against the glass ceiling – you could even say throughout my entire career,” she explains.
Two lasting pieces of advice that she has for women looking to get into roles of IP leadership are:
- Who you partner with may be your most important career decision: you should partner with a person who trusts and respects you and supports your career ambitions. That’s what Ms. Hakoranta has always had: her and her husband have always been each other’s biggest supporters.
- Focus on the impact and great things will follow: “it is not about you – it is about the impact you make”, she says, finding out where your strengths are and how you can make the most positive impact. Focus less on what is happening around you, on roles, titles, and money. Focus on finding what you like and where you make an impact for the better, and then just practice that. Keep an open mind, and give everything a try. You might be surprised.