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. <br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>I will get our lawyers involved in 2 weeks if I don't find out anything in the meantime.<br><br>Cheers and thanks<br><br>Gertjan<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Ronciak, John <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john.ronciak@intel.com">john.ronciak@intel.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span><font color="#0000ff">We
have started the discussion here, including our lawyers. As soon as I
know more I'll post an update to this list.</font></span></div>
<div> </div>
<p><span lang="en-us">Cheers,</span> <br><span lang="en-us">John</span> <br><span lang="en-us">-----------------------------------------------------------</span>
<br><span lang="en-us">"...that your people will judge you on what you can build,
not what you destroy.", B. Obama, 2009 </span></p>
<div> </div><br>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 255); padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div dir="ltr" align="left" lang="en-us">
<hr>
<font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:ptpd-bounces@lists.infradead.org" target="_blank">ptpd-bounces@lists.infradead.org</a>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:ptpd-bounces@lists.infradead.org" target="_blank">ptpd-bounces@lists.infradead.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>gertjan
hofman<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, January 21, 2010 1:35 PM<br><b>To:</b>
<a href="mailto:ptpd@lists.infradead.org" target="_blank">ptpd@lists.infradead.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: Re: IEEE1588 patent encumbered
-<br></font><br></div><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<div></div><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>Much
appreciated<br><br>Gertjan<br><br><br><br><br><br>==================================================<br>Gertjan
Hofman<br>ghofman [at] <a href="http://gmail.com" target="_blank">gmail.com</a>
<br><br>604-982-3574<br>==================================================<br></div></div></blockquote></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>==================================================<br>Gertjan Hofman<br>ghofman [at] <a href="http://gmail.com">gmail.com</a> gertjan.hofman [at] <a href="http://honeywell.com">honeywell.com</a><br>
<br>604-982-3574<br>==================================================<br>