28 June, 2009

First LTE License Agreement for Ericsson
Ericsson, a leading pioneer of LTE technology, has signed license agreements for LTE essential patents. This builds on Ericsson's present global licensing program for GSM/WCDMA, now composed of more than 80 agreements and generating significant revenue. Ericsson possesses a ample number of standard essential patents that are key to developing 4G/LTE products.

Ericsson is making its technology available to others by championing industry practice on FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) licensing. Accordingly, licensing arrangements are made according to Ericsson's proportional share of the standard IPR that relates to the relevant product category. The company equally honors the same industry practice by ensuring a maximum cumulative rate on LTE technology which is achieved through bilateral negotiations undertaken in good-faith.

Stanford Professor seeks Patent Reexam in HIV Database Legal fight with ABL
Advanced Biological Laboratories, Luxembourg settled a defamation lawsuit against Robert Shafer, a Stanford University professor. The professor had claimed that ABL was discouraging physicians from using his online database for HIV drug resistance by enforcing its own bioinformatics patents.
The patents in this case were the methods of using a computer to guide the selection of therapeutic treatment regimens for known diseases and the Stanford University HIV Drug Resistance Database, a free online resource for guiding HIV treatment, which was maintained by Robert Shafer. Despite the settlement, Shafer said that he will continue to dispute the validity of ABL's patents with the USPTO. In October last year, Shafer initiated a reexamination of ABL's patents with the USPTO. In response, ABL in December filed its breach of contract and defamation suit against Shafer and Stanford.

Open Patent Alliance issues call for WiMAX patents
The Open Patent Alliance (OPA), a group dedicated to offering IPR solutions that support development and widespread adoption of WiMAX, has announced a call for patents. It aims at creating a patent pool of essential WiMAX patents and has selected Via Licensing Corporation to facilitate the formation and administration of the pool on its behalf.
A WiMAX patent pool will allow companies to access patent licenses in a simple and cost-effective manner. This is a requisite to the long-term success and broad adoption of WiMAX, enabling a wider range of devices from the smart phones, consumer electronics and PC industries to more quickly integrate wireless broadband into their products.

WiMAX is a 4G IP-based wireless broadband technology based on the IEEE 802.16e specification and it provides low-cost, multi-megabit speeds and greater throughput for the mobile Internet era of video-rich content and bandwidth-intensive applications. OPA members include Acer, Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei Technologies, Intel Corporation, and Samsung Electronics, Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, Sequans, and UQ Communications.

WTO rejects US IPR claims against China
The World Trade Organisation rejected US IPR claims against China. The US claims included China's denial of copyright protection to works that have not been approved for publication or distribution in China, the removal of infringing trademarks as the precondition for sale at public auction of counterfeit goods seized by Chinese customs authorities, and the lack of criminal procedures and penalties in China against copyright piracy. This is the fifth time the US has launched appeals against China, but the first case regarding these issues.

"China is committed to IPR protection, and we will strengthen cooperation on IPR issues with nations and regions worldwide," a ministry spokesperson said.

The US appealed to the WTO in May 2007, and its claims focused on 11 specific articles regarding criminal thresholds, customs measures and copyright protection.