Six large and well-known technology companies are pooling their resources to jointly license WiMAX patents.
The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Cisco, Intel, Samsung, Sprint Nextel, Alcatel-Lucent and Clearwire are forming a patent pool with the goal of limiting royalty rates so that WiMAX will be more widespread with consumers.
The Journal said a conference call was slated today to announce the organization, which will be called the Open Patent Alliance. The organization will work on collecting rights to WiMAX-related patents and then license them to manufacturers of computers, networking devices and other products.
One potential snag for the new organization is that Qualcomm and Motorola, who each hold several WiMAX patents, have yet to join the pool.
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