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Via Licensing Begins
Process to Form Wireless
Broadband Access Patent Licensing Pool
Call for essential patents will lead to joint licensing of patents to
enable products utilizing the IEEE 802.16 standard
San Francisco, September 27, 2004—Via Licensing Corporation, in
consultation with leading owners of critical intellectual property
rights, is pleased to issue the following call for essential patents
reading on the IEEE 802.16 standard.
Copies of the IEEE 802.16 standard (IEEE 802.16-2004 or IEEE p802.16
Rev(d) D5) can be obtained from the IEEE Standards Association online
at www.ieee.org.
Devices that are compliant with the IEEE 802.16 standard are designed
to provide wireless broadband access to remote networks and the
Internet. IEEE 802.16–based devices include customer premise equipment
that ranges from consumer-level gateways, similar to DSL and cable
modem access, to equipment suited to commercial access with much
higher data-transfer rates. IEEE 802.16–based devices also include
carrier-installed equipment that provides access to the remote
customer-premise devices.
To promote market growth and diversity by enabling many industry
participants and to provide a reasonable return on patent owners'
investments in developing new technologies, broad access to essential
patents for open international standards is mandatory. Widespread
adoption of the IEEE 802.16 standard by a wide range of device
manufacturers will benefit consumers, manufacturers, and patent
owners.
The goal of this call for patents is to identify the owners of patents
that are essential necessary for the practice of the IEEE 802.16
standard. Essential patents are understood to be issued patents that
have one or more claims that would necessarily be infringed by the
implementation or use of the IEEE 802.16 standard. Patent owners are
encouraged to submit patents for evaluation by November 19th, 2004, to
ensure completion of the review prior to the initial meeting of the
licensing committee.
Any entity that believes it has granted patents that are essential to
the mandatory normative portions of the IEEE 802.16 standard, and that
wishes to participate in a group consisting of essential patent
holders that will convene to discuss the commercialization terms for
patents essential to the IEEE 802.16 standard under fair, reasonable,
and nondiscriminatory terms, is invited to contact Via Licensing
Corporation for information about how to submit patents for
evaluation.
Please request such information by sending an email to submissions@vialicensing.com,
specifying your interest in making a submission for consideration of
essentiality to the IEEE 802.16 standard.
About Via Licensing Corporation
Via Licensing Corporation develops and administers patent licensing
programs, or patent pools, on behalf of innovative technology
companies and for the convenience of licensees. Via Licensing
Corporation is a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc., and benefits
from the expertise, infrastructure, and strategic business
relationships that Dolby has developed in more than 35 years of
licensing into the consumer electronics and personal computing
markets. Via Licensing is involved in the development and operation of
licensing programs for both mandated and de facto or emerging
standards. For more information about Via Licensing Corporation,
please visit www.vialicensing.com. |
