Six leading tech firms have formed a patent alliance to encourage expansion of WiMAX, an emerging high-speed wireless technology, the companies said in a statement.
Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Sprint hope that the creation of a patent pool will help companies designing for WiMAX get access to licenses to patented technology at a predictable cost, the companies said.
The companies said in a statement that the alliance, called Open Patent Alliance, was "to help ensure product differentiation and interoperability at a more predictable cost." "This approach will focus on providing a more competitive royalty structure by charging only for the features required to develop WiMAX products," they added.