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.