Leading mobile WiMAX vendors pool patents

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 10 June 2008 06:15

Business IT - Technology

Six of the leading suppliers of WiMAX technology - Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Sprint - have agreed to pool their intellectual property in mobile WiMAX (IEEE802.16e) technology in a bid to boost uptake.

They have created the Open Patent Alliance (OPA)   to hold a pool of their respective 802.16e patents in a move they say is designed to help participating companies obtain access to patent licenses from patent owners at a predictable cost. It is also claimed that the move will help ensure product differentiation and interoperability at a more predictable cost, by charging licence fees only for the features in patents required to develop WiMAX products. However, vendors with IPR said to be crucial to WiMAX technology - Ericsson and Qualcomm - are not members.

According to its backers, "the patent pool will incorporate a variety of royalty licensing solutions, including accounting for cross-licensing among individual members within the pool...[and] the OPA will educate the WiMAX ecosystem about, and serve as a central resource for WiMAX intellectual property rights topics."

The OPA will issue a call for WiMAX essential patents for inclusion in its patent pool. An independent third-party reviewer will serve as the 'patent referee' and will evaluate submitted patents to determine how essential they are to the WiMAX standard and WiMAX Forum profiles. The OPA initially will focus its efforts on the WiMAX standard, but its founders say it may work with other industry groups in the future.

It is the latest ploy by WiMAX vendors to reduce IPR costs compared to rival technologies from the 3G cellular camp, and   mimics a move earlier this year by backers of the 3G based long term evolution (LTE)

ABI Research last year produced a study on 4G Intellectual Property and Royalties   and in a press release issued at the time said: "One of the major advantages claimed by the WiMAX community over their cellular cousins is that WiMAX will come with a far lower average royalty rate than either LTE or UMB. A favourite phrase among the WiMAX OEM community is that WiMAX has effectively 'democratised' the 4G space. Although ABI Research applauds the move to a more widespread intellectual property holding in the 4G realm, it could be argued that this democratisation of IP will result in more, not fewer, IP royalties."
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