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Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com)
News.com reports
that WI-LAN is suing Cisco in Canada for alleged infringement of patents
associated with the wireless networking standards. "'Without our OFDM
patents, there would be no 802.11a/g,' [WI-LAN VP Ken Wetherell] said. 'We didn't enforce these
patents sooner, because we didn't want to slow down development in the
market. But now that the technologies are firmly established, we feel we
must protect our intellectual property.'" This looks like the SCO
school of IP enforcement.
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Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 3:25 UTC (Thu) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link] Geez.. there needs to be a law that a company that does not defend its patents from the very first looses its patents and it immediately falls into the public domain. While it means that more lawsuits happen.. I think that mess would cause better IP reform in the long term. {IE get software patent process clearer, cleaner, or removed}
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 4:59 UTC (Thu) by neoprene (guest, #8520) [Link] Once a Standard goes public, interested parties should be notified, public notices posted et cetera, then if no one objects the standard becomes open and official. Lurking with claims while the standard gets deployed is shallow, if anyone knew the stadard is tainted would they adopt it?Give a reasonable time for objections to raised, (three months?) then open it up. Qualcomm made a few bucks with CDMA but not all adopted it, technology is flexible. Helloooo TDMA! We all benefit from open standards. 802.11J coming soon?
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 12:41 UTC (Thu) by verzonnen (guest, #9406) [Link] How do you know who to notify, there are so many patents out there. with thousands added each month....
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 13:52 UTC (Thu) by mmarsh (subscriber, #17029) [Link] There are only so many standards organizations, though. The people to notify are probably the ones directly mentioned in a standard. For all others, a notification that a standard has been proposed should be sufficient. Due dilligence cuts both ways -- if you don't know where to look for notices related to your patents or couldn't be bothered to take the time, then your patents must not be worth enforcing.The attitude of "let's let people use our patent royalty-free to build up a technology base and then start charging them", unless agreed upon by all parties involved up front, strikes me as highly unethical, and the more serious issue. I whole-heartedly agree that companies and individuals should be given a fixed amount of time after a standard is approved to voice objections on patent or other grounds, and after that they're out of luck. WI-LAN's actions sound like extortion to me.
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 15:34 UTC (Thu) by verzonnen (guest, #9406) [Link] Of course is it extortion and to make things worse, it is legalized extortion.
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 16:54 UTC (Thu) by hathawsh (guest, #11289) [Link] On the bright side, if Cisco wins, the case may lead to patent reforms. Intent should be taken into consideration in patent enforcement suits. Anyone who says "...now that the technologies are firmly established, we feel we must protect our intellectual property" should lose their patent.
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 15:46 UTC (Thu) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] Yes i agree... at least it would be much more ethical.What is happening with the western world ethical business atmosphere, is a identical phenomenon that happen with piracy in carabeans in the XVI and XVII centurys... Wait until a ship gets a cargo that can be robbed, for you to attack... The only difference is that with this new "patents systems", that is perfectly legal.
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 24, 2004 15:38 UTC (Thu) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link] It is rather the Forgent way that the SCO way.(Forgent pretend to hold a patend related to the JPEG standard. They tried to enforce it for the first time 16 years after the patend was granted.)
Cisco the target of wireless lawsuit (News.com) Posted Jun 26, 2004 5:24 UTC (Sat) by mkettler (guest, #3933) [Link] Not to mention Rambus (patents on technology in DDR ram) and Unisys (the LZ compression patents affecting GIF files).Unisys was very "stealth submarine" about it, waiting years.. Much like Forgent. Rambus is probably the closest match overall to Cisco. Both were working with the standards bodies, both kept quiet during the process and both revealed their patents shortly after the standard was made. The Rambus thing has gone back and forth in courts over a JEDEC policy on patent disclosure among participating members. I don't think IEEE has such a policy however.
bottom line Posted Jun 24, 2004 21:30 UTC (Thu) by ccyoung (guest, #16340) [Link] bottom line is that patents are having the opposite effect of their declared right to exist in the constitution
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