Agere Sells Wireless Patents

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 02 March 2007

Agere has sold a number of wireless networking patents to a Canadian Patent company. The portfolio includes key patents to the 802.11 Wi-Fi standards as well as the 802.16 WiMAX standards that could earn Mosaid a fortune if it can collect. The patents were sold after more than 70 companies were invited to tender to purchase the portfolio. The portfolio covers 20 patents issued in North America, Japan and parts of western Europe, plus another three pending patents in the US and Europe. They were sold for more than US$30 million over the remaining lifespan of the patents. On average, the patents have a lifespan of about 10 years.Under the terms of the agreement, MOSAID will pay Agere US$25 million during MOSAID's fiscal 2007 fourth quarter, US$5 million in the fiscal 2008 fourth quarter, and eight subsequent annual payments of US$5 million, creditable against Agere's 20% of royalty revenues earned under a revenue sharing formula. "We are very pleased to have won this bid for some of the most valuable wireless patents in the world," said George Cwynar, President and Chief Executive Officer, MOSAID. "The acquisition of these wireless patents is a major step for MOSAID that firmly establishes our patent licensing program in another of the world's largest technology markets." The portfolio consists of 20 issued patents in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain and Canada, and three pending patents in the United States and Europe, with an average remaining life of 11 years for the key patents. The portfolio includes patents that are essential to the 802.11 family of WLAN (or WiFi) standards, and the 802.16 family of WiMAX standards. The portfolio includes several inventions patented by engineers working for the WaveLan group of NCR, which founded the 802.11 standards body,explained John Lindgren, Senior Vice President Patent Licensing and General Counsel, MOSAID. "Agere and MOSAID have each invested considerable resources in evaluating and mapping the patents of this portfolio to the IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.16 standards, and MOSAID believes that the licensing revenue from these WiFi and WiMAX patents has the potential to surpass the revenues that the Company has earned to date from its DRAM memory patents," he said. www.mosaid.com. Related news items Seven In Unwired Takeover Bid -26/09/2007 IDC Paints Picture Of Fierce Mobile Competition -11/07/2007 Gold Bluetooth Headset From Jabra -08/05/2007 Kiwi Risks Huge Legal Bill To Recover Laptop -19/04/2007 Mobile, Not VoIP The Big Growth Area For Voice -16/03/2007 Newer news items Boingo Goes Flat On Global Roaming -26/06/2007 Wi-Fi Alliance Begins Draft-N Certification -25/06/2007 D-Link Routers To Make Sharing Easy -24/04/2007 Easy VoIP System For Mobile Makers -16/03/2007 Draft N Inches Forward -14/03/2007 Older news items Atheros Reaches 100 Million Chip Landmark -27/02/2007 Linksys Releases Draft-N For SMBs -30/01/2007 Symbol Builds A Bridge Between RFID and WLAN -07/12/2006 Qualcomm Acquires Airgo -04/12/2006 WLAN Win For CSIRO -15/11/2006 Tag This Now: