IEEE1588 patent encumbered -

[gertjan hofman]

A quick glance at some of the Agilent patents show that US 5566180 would
definitely infringe (not that I am a lawyer). It is essentially the 1588
protocol.  Most the "Letters of Assurance" received by IEEE from Agilent on
this subject do not exclude charging license fees, merely guarantee license
will be provided to all interested parties.

It seems to me that it is not the code as such that is the problem, but
message algorithm. Hence there should be simple answers to our questions:
National Instruments, Intel, IXXAT, Hirshman etc are all selling products
that use the protocol (whether in soft or hardware) and either all pay
nominal license fees or Agilent isn't interested in charging it.

I will get our lawyers involved in 2 weeks if I don't find out anything in
the meantime.

Cheers and thanks

Gertjan



On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Ronciak, John <john.ronciak at intel.com>wrote:

>  We have started the discussion here, including our lawyers.  As soon as I
> know more I'll post an update to this list.
>
>
> Cheers,
> John
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> "...that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you
> destroy.", B. Obama, 2009
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* ptpd-bounces at lists.infradead.org [mailto:
> ptpd-bounces at lists.infradead.org] *On Behalf Of *gertjan hofman
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 21, 2010 1:35 PM
> *To:* ptpd at lists.infradead.org
> *Subject:* Re: Re: IEEE1588 patent encumbered -
>
>
> I would like to add my voice to request for patent info.  We have (had ?)
> every intention of running Ptp on some of our products and are far down the
> development road.  I am in the middle of sorting out other GPL license
> issues when finally looked at the patent note and now see your e-mails.
>
> We would be very interested in knowing whether the original code on
> sourceforge (by Kendall) breaches any patents.  I do have access to a team
> of lawyers ( I work for  very large corporation) , but I want to find out a
> little more if I can, or at least be able to direct them better.
>
> Much appreciated
>
> Gertjan
>
>
>
>
>
> ==================================================
> Gertjan Hofman
> ghofman [at] gmail.com
>
> 604-982-3574
> ==================================================
>
>


-- 
==================================================
Gertjan Hofman
ghofman [at] gmail.com   gertjan.hofman [at] honeywell.com

604-982-3574
==================================================
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