[the power of patents]
pat,
this is is what you may have been hearing about re: a patent claim derailing the
56Kbps modem standardization process. pardons for the barfy URL.
nwfusion.com|ttsw/UdMFlnVU/Uydl/tpjmmPR.OB0StstpUdMFlnVUjkjjrHv86a3v,094RSyd,rHv8iaHHDu,U9W9S0
an interesting light in which to re-evaluate the strategic value of AMTX's
patent portfolio.
mark
-----
56K modem spec suffers setback
By Tim Greene
Network World, 8/25/97
The 56K bit/sec modem market has been thrown into a tailspin by an individual's
patent claim that raises questions about who owns key pieces of the dial-up technology.
Uncertainty surrounding the claim has all but ensured that plans to finalize a
56K bit/sec modem standard by January will be derailed, said Ken Krechmer,
a standards committee member who planned to raise the patent issue Saturday
at the ISPCon '97 conference in San Francisco.
Major modem makers contacted last week said they are now approaching
adoption of the standard with caution until they see how the patent issue plays out.
The standard was scheduled to be formalized - a step before finalization -
at an Inter-national Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting in September.
''This was a very aggressive schedule, and it now is in jeopardy,'' said Krechmer,
technical editor of the ''Communications Standards Review'' newsletter.
''There's not a damn thing the technical committee can do about it. It's a lawyer problem.''
It now could be 12 months before customers are able to buy interoperable,
standards-based 56K bit/sec modems for Internet and LAN access.
''It doesn't make sense to roll out a service that's going to change in six months,''
said Dean Heltemes, remote access service manager for Cargill Corp. in Minneapolis,
which is weighing deployment of 56K bit/sec modem support for telecommuters.
Currently, there are two incompatible 56K bit/sec mo-dem technologies:
one developed by U.S. Robotics and the other by Rockwell Semiconductor
Systems and Lucent Technologies, Inc.
Man in the middle
The man at the center of the modem controversy is Brent Townshend.
Little is known about him other than he claims to own the basic intellectual
property key to any 56K bit/sec modem. Townshend, who could not be reached
for this story, so far has not declared what he wants in return for letting others
use his intellectual property.
A foreign patent search conducted by one of the modem vendors on the ITU committee
turned up Townshend's claim - a broad patent filing on basic 56K bit/sec pulse code
modulation modem technology.
Standards committee members contacted last week said they were not familiar
with Townshend. But they said a committee member had contacted Townshend
and he seemed willing to license his technology.
Getting to know you
While Townshend could declare his intent to license fairly and reasonably
in time for the next standards committee meeting, it may be too late. Whereas the
major modem vendors have working relationships and a certain level of trust with
one another, they do not know Townshend.
''A cautious company would not want to move ahead blindly,'' said Glen Griffith,
director of standards development at Rockwell Semiconductor Systems.
''They might want to wait for a patent to issue, see what it is, then design around it.
Or they might want to start a dialogue with Mr. Townshend and make sure he can't
hurt them.
The ITU and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) have been cooperating
to accelerate the standards process, but the intellectual property issue stands
in the way. Major modem vendors are skittish about the huge financial impact that
licensing fees could have on them.
''If you are talking $1 per modem, then you're talking $100 million in royalties over
two or three years, easily,'' Griffith said.
Les Brown, who is chairman of the TIA's 56K bit/sec modem committee and
works for modem maker Motorola, Inc., said he still hopes an agreement can
be reached next month. But if not, he said the standard likely will be delayed until
September 1998. |
