Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
22. What is the WiMAX Forum’s position on IPR and WiMAX technology?
WiMAX Forum member companies have been the first to bring standardized solutions to the marketplace for wireless broadband, making broadband services more cost-effective to deploy on a wide scale. As of September 2006, there were more than 1,500 patents distributed among 330 companies on WiMAX technologies. Of the 23 companies that hold more than 10 patents, 74 percent are WiMAX Forum members. As additional products become WiMAX Forum Certified and additional patent holders join the WiMAX Forum, we believe that we will be able to achieve our goal of interoperability between OEMs and carriers.
The WiMAX Forum has an IPR policy that is published and widely supported by the industry today. It is publicly posted on the WiMAX Forum website at: http://www.wimaxforum.org/join/Governing_Documents/. The IPR approach initiated by the WiMAX Forum provides for a reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing model.
23. Does the Open Patent Alliance (OPA) complement the WiMAX Forum IPR policy?
The current Open Patent Alliance (OPA) model supported by WiMAX Forum is open, transparent, predictable and nondiscriminatory with an objective of delivering a fair royalty rate tall. OPA accelerates the ability for vendors to license WiMAX technology by providing a single source for essential patents. This IPR model has been proven with other technologies to be able to deliver competitive, innovative, and low cost IPR solutions. It’s also recognized as a model that encourages the development of interoperable, lower cost products and services that take advantage of the high-bandwidth networks that WiMAX technology provides, thus ensuring economies of scale while keeping entry costs low for consumers. For more information on the Open Patent Alliance, please visit http://www.openpatentalliance.com/.
