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Home > Six Firms Announce WiMAX Patent Alliance
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Six Firms Announce WiMAX Patent Alliance

June 16, 2008

To accelerate the widespread adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology and products, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics, and Sprint announced the formation of the Open Patent Alliance (OPA). OPA will form a WiMAX patent pool to help participating companies obtain access to patent licenses from patent owners at a predictable cost.

The patent pool will aggregate essential patent rights needed to implement the WiMAX standard in order to create a more competitive royalty structure which charges only for the features required to develop WiMAX products. The patent pool will incorporate a variety of royalty licensing solutions, including accounting for cross-licensing among individual members within the pool.

Open Patent Alliance Expects Participation from Additional Investors

In addition to the six major companies that are part of OPA's inception, the Alliance expects to secure participation of an additional six to nine investor companies each of which will have a seat on the OPA board of directors. OPA will have dedicated staff that is directed by and accountable to the OPA board, and the alliance will serve as the licensing agent for the WiMAX patent pool, representing the licensors who agree to participate in the pool.

In addition to the formation of a WiMAX patent pool, OPA will educate the WiMAX ecosystem about, and serve as a central resource for, WiMAX intellectual property rights topics.

OPA Founded With Broad, Cross-Industry Support

Each of the six companies participating in OPA issued statements of support for the Alliance's charter. In a press release, Philippe Keryer, president of Alcatel-Lucent's mobile access business, said: "We are confident that the formation of the Open Patent Alliance will ensure that a broad and diverse set of devices will be available to the consumer, enabling service providers to deliver an unparalleled selection of applications that can unleash the huge potential of broadband wireless anywhere, anytime, that WiMAX enables."