WiMAX Device Partnership Focuses on Patents

In a move meant to support the impending Clearwire/Sprint Xohm WiMAX rollout, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Samsung have all decided to jointly support would-be device makers with a unified patent strategy.

Sprint-Nextel Inc. and Clearwire Corp. will work with the vendors to pool together intellectual property patents, essentially creating a single repository for device makers wanting to license the technologies in order to create embedded WiMAX devices. The benefit is one-stop-shopping, along with the ability on the part of consumer electronics licensees to get predictable cost models when looking at embedding WiMAX.

The members of the appropriately named Open Patent Alliance (OPA) will leverage a “variety” of royalty schemes, but said the exact framework was yet to be determined.

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