Open Patent Alliance: agreement on patents of WiMAX

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The Open Patent Alliance, a new organization formed on June 9, 2008, will actively manage the intellectual property of WiMAX to defuse conflicts related to the use of patents and accelerate the adoption of this technology.

The patent wars that have punctuated the development of several major technologies such as 3G or WiFi, have left traces in how to manage their intellectual property and patents involved. Now, every major technology is the subject of particular attention at this point in defining frameworks harmonising the management of licence fees among participants.

This was the case for post-3G technology LTE (Long Term Evolution) in April 2008, which established a framework FRAND (Fair, Reasonable And Non-Disciminatory), it is also now for technology WiMAX with the creation of an Open Patent Alliance (OPA), comprising Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics and the operator Sprint, all largely involved in the rapid development of this technology.

To harmonize the management of intellectual property rights
The objective is to establish an open framework to manage intellectual property to encourage the adoption of WiMAX and create services and equipment cheaper. The takeover will create a pool of patents enabling the companies to obtain licenses at prices predictable and without risk of being attacked by later for unauthorized use.

The companies will also pay rights as essential features for the development of their products, with various possible models, such as cross-licensing (cross-licencing) with other members of the OPA.

On the other hand, the OPA will play a role of information on issues of intellectual property protection against the WiMAX and centralized resource centre. It will define what are the essential patents, through an independent arbitrator.

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