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Six top tech firms announce patent alliance

DIANE BARTZ

Monday, June 09, 2008

WASHINGTON — Six leading tech firms have formed a patent alliance in order to encourage expansion of WiMax, an emerging high-speed wireless technology, the companies said in a statement.

Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems Inc., Clearwire Corp., Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sprint Nextel Corp. hope that the creation of a patent pool will help companies designing for WiMax get access to licenses to patented technology at a predictable cost, the companies said.

“It's about openness (and) predictability of the business model,” said Scott Richardson, an executive with Clearwire, in a statement to reporters.

The companies said in a statement that the alliance, called Open Patent Alliance, was “to help ensure product differentiation and interoperability at a more predictable cost.”

“This approach will focus on providing a more competitive royalty structure by charging only for the features required to develop WiMax products,” they added.

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