IEEE1588 patent encumbered -

[Daniel Le]

Meinberg also sells products on IEEE 1588.

 

The link https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=556611#c9 that John
W. Linville provided leads indirectly to the IEEE patent page where
patent letters are disclosed. There are 4 patent letters (from Agilent
Technologies, Cisco Systems, Samsung Electronics, Siemens
Aktiengesellschaft) that could affect any implementation of 1588
protocol, not just the open source code, which may or may not incur
patent licensing fees.

 

From: ptpd-bounces at lists.infradead.org
[mailto:ptpd-bounces at lists.infradead.org] On Behalf Of gertjan hofman
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 7:57 PM
To: Ronciak, John; ptpd at lists.infradead.org
Subject: Re: Re: IEEE1588 patent encumbered -

 

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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