Verizon VoIP Patents Legitimate? > They've patented customer DBs too

reply to Goober

Re: They've patented customer DBs too

Yours is a good point. While the RAMBUS case is a text-book example, I see this type of behavior still.

Unfortunately, I'd have to look more closely at the circumstances of this case, which I haven't done yet. So, I'm not very knowledgable.

One thing to note is that depending on the standards agreement, Verizon still may be in the clear. In certain cases, the standards group sets forth a specification, but it's up to the technology members to implement that in specific ways. So, the organization owns the spec, but each company owns its own patents on specific implementations.

Depending on how the agreement is written, the specific implementation by the patentee is subject to RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing to the other members. For non-members, the patent holder can go after them with guns ablazing.

So, the other members of the consortium may very well have some type of RAND agreement and will be safe from Verizon's lawsuits. Non-members, watch out.

reply to SRFireside
Dont EVEN TRY that one! Rambus Innovated. They continue to Innovate. NDA's were signed. The others Copied. The Truth is out there. Look at who is settling, who is being fined heavily and who is going to Jail. Just like it will be when the insane patents are overthrown and VoIP is allowed to proceed fairly without pressure from a Monopolistic ILEC.

It's a matter of perspective. Rambus certainly did something that wasn't on the up and up in regards to the consortium relationship. It's not to say that they didn't/don't innovate.

I was a new engineer in Geoff Tate's organization at AMD back in 1989. He left briefly afterwards for what eventually became Rambus. But, I recall that he was an incredibly smart and savvy individual. The youngest EVP ever at AMD, if I recall correctly. So I agree that he and the organization are innovators. But, I also believe that Rambus got greedy and tried to freeze out the consortium members once Rambus realized that they had something good.

I'm involved and have been involved for many years in lots of standards based patenting activity and none of them have ever ended up the way Rambus did. I think that's very telling.

reply to TechSponge
They innovated with the RAMBUS memory technology. They were using bogus patent claims to sue companies for royalties involving SDRAM and possibly DDR RAM (I can't recall the latter). A company can be both an innovator and opportunistic con artists at the same time.

reply to Goober
I appreciate that, however, I find it more telling that The FTC is backpedaling and allowing them to collect Retro-Royalites from the few companies that have not been paying and are allowed to collect going forward on everything from SDRam forward. There is something wrong with having innovated, put everyone on notice that you intend to protect your innovations, watch those innovations merged into some industry standard via a consortium that you are invited to but denied the motion to present at, while everyone you have taught how to do what to do is incorporating your NDA protected Technology into an Industry standard.

That being said, I think this VoIP patent case is a bit different.

Thanks for the Comments Goober! Always nice to speak with someone that is familiar with what the issues and timeframes were.

I agree. It certainly is interesting that Rambus has been vidicated to a certain extent. I'm still not sure, though, what may have happened in the consortium.

If nothing else, events like the Rambus matter only enforce the notion that agreements between the parties and members of a consortium need to be really well though out and air-tight.

Isn't it amazing, though, how repercussions from certain actions just ripple over such a long time.

Agreed. The Rules must be set out plain and clear beforehand. More than Amazing though.... Justice Delayed is Justice Denied. Justice will one day be served and I will be made whole and gain my sanity back. What a story indeed. Just like this VoIP patent story will be someday.