RE: RE: Apple made their Point (Re: Pacer)I can't help but think that there has been a change in approach that has
occurred.
Most recently, when Wi-lan took all the players to court for WiFi patents, they put themselves
in the position whereby they were going to get paid. They argued that they were
owed monies at every level.
This caused the chip makers' customers to put pressure on the chip makers to
settle. I believe that the judge in Texas helped to make this happen. What we
don't know is whether or not Wi-lan got monies beyond a small percentage of the
cost of the chip or whether there was some other mechanism that was put into
place whereby Wi-lan would receive more money long term. We just don't know.
At any rate, I think this approach has stuck for Bluetooth and will probably be
used for cdma and others.
Regarding RIM and Samsung, they signed before this was before this approach was roled out. Wi-lan was essentiallygoing after individual companies one at that time. As RIM and Samsung license run out, I believe that they will be covered by the Chip Maker's licenses where licenses are in place. So I don't believe Wi-lan stands to make a great amount off of those old licenses when they expire.
In my mind, that's not a big deal as long as Wi-lan got a reasonable amount of money from the Chip Makers. That's the biggee for me.
There is one very big chip maker left that I believe Wi-lan has in its sights and is now pursuing. QCOM. They are coming at QCOM via QCOM's customers - including HTC.