Now This is Common Sense

Sometimes its just good to see some common sense being used in the telecom market. 6 firms are pooling patents in a hope that by doing so they can share costs and avoid IP litigation. My gosh if this catches on pretty soon we might see a free use band in the wireless spectrum –

Six big technology companies are spearheading a plan to jointly license patents that cover the wireless technology called WiMAX hoping to limit royalty rates that could deter customers from using it.

The participants are Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Alcatel-Lucent and Clearwire Corp., according to people familiar with the situation and a document outlining the group’s plans.

They have scheduled a conference call Monday to announce an organization, the Open Patent Alliance, to gather rights to WiMAX-related patents and license them to makers of computers, networking devices and other products, these people said.

Linky.