IEEE1588 patent encumbered -

[Ronciak, John]

Sorry everybody, it was pointed out to me that my shorthand for RH is probably not known to most people.  RH = Red Hat.  So it's the Red Hat legal team that will be contacted.


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 Ronciak, John
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 4:02 PM
To: gertjan hofman; ptpd at lists.infradead.org
Subject: RE: Re: IEEE1588 patent encumbered -

First I want to make it clear that I am not a lawyer, I am not speaking for the Intel legal team.

I had a meeting with our (Intel) lawyers about this today.  They were having a hard time understanding how this is any different than other IEEE protocols implemented in Open Source.  I have to agree with them, seems like the same problem is with most of them as well, like wireless for example.

Anyway, one of our lawyers is going to contact the RH legal to asks what's going on.  There isn't much that can happen at this point as it would be a fairly high expense to try to get patent releases from all the patent holders.  While this is still being looked at we really need to hear what RH is thinking about here, at least at the legal level.

Once I hear back I'll post again.

Sorry, I wish the news was better.


Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------------------------
"...that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.", B. Obama, 2009



________________________________
From: gertjan hofman [mailto:ghofman at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 4:57 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<mailto: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> [mailto: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<mailto: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<http://gmail.com>

604-982-3574
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--
==================================================
Gertjan Hofman
ghofman [at] gmail.com<http://gmail.com>   gertjan.hofman [at] honeywell.com<http://honeywell.com>

604-982-3574
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