The Open Patent Alliance, set up last year to create an IPR framework for Wimax, will publish its recommended tools, favoring a patent pool approach, "imminently", and hopes to create a blueprint for the whole 4G world.
The Alliance's key priority is to establish a set of tools to make patent licensing open, consistent and transparent, initially in Wimax but potentially, if its methods are proven, also in other technologies.
These tools, which would include a patent pool to work alongside the bilateral deals that are the basis of most cellular licensing, will be announced very soon and the aim will be to demonstrate a real world pool that works and can win industry confidence.
That would then lead to the level of participation to make the pool credible and effective to the industry and the courts, argued Yung Hahn, president of the OPA.
Hahn opened up about the Alliance's hopes of shifting the goalposts for wireless patent licensing - which has been a thorny issue in 2G and 3G - following the news that notebook giant Acer had joined the group in May.
This was significant for bringing support and expertise to the OPA, from the PC ecosystem, which has traditionally had very different IPR norms to that of the cellular world. As the IP-based 4G technologies, Wimax and LTE, will be driven by PC and consumer electronics devices as well as phones, such insights will be important to create an appropriate IPR system.
"We are tickled pink to have Acer join," said Hahn. "We need the PC and CE ecosystems to be well represented because of the diversity of client devices. If 4G were only dependent on phones, it would be different, there is probably no significant problem with phones. But 4G is all about mobile internet devices, and is far more than the phone vendors."
Convincing the holdouts
Of course, the OPA still needs to get phonemakers on its side - given the driving force of Intel behind the initiative, acceptance in the PC world may be simpler than getting Nokia and Qualcomm to sign up, not to mention the CE giants (though Samsung is a founder member and spans all these worlds).
Qualcomm's patent holdings in OFDM-based technologies like Wimax and LTE are unclear as yet, but the company famously stays aloof from patent pools and other common frameworks; the increasingly important Chinese device makers also have their own complex IPR issues and will need to be convinced.
These are challenges for all next generation patent initiatives however, and Hahn is confident that the OPA is, at least, setting the pace, and could extend its reach beyond just Wimax. Referring to recent LTE patent pool activity by Via Licensing, he said "imitation is the best form of flattery" and indicates "the LTE community is thinking patent pools could be the way to go".
A group of LTE vendors got together a year ago to create a common licensing framework for LTE, but others prefer a patent pool administered by a third party, and Via Licensing has stepped up to the plate. Via already manages patent pools for some key standards, such as MPEG2, Wi-Fi and NFC, and signed a deal last December with the IEEE to administer pools for that body's key standards.
It says it now wants to work with the LTE industry to create a licensing program that "balances the needs of licensors and licensees and enables the industry to more effectively develop and deliver products and services based on LTE."
Its experience in pools and its independent stance could give it a better chance than some efforts to bringing the industry together, but of course a pool only works if the largest IPR holders and licensees all support it.
There can only be one pool for each technology, and competing technologies cannot be managed within one pool, but a single umbrella organization can run sub-pools for each platform, and can then benefit by offering good terms, especially to vendors that need to license the same patents in multiple pools.
The drive, then, will be towards an over-arching patent pool for the 4G technologies, and the OPA clearly intends to use its head start in the process to make a firm pitch for this important, if deeply political, role.
Caroline Gabriel is head of research at Rethink Research