Sisvel Advancing Toward Formation of 802.11n Patent Pool

Plans for Launch in Q3 2011 and Renews Call for Patents Essential to the 802.11 Standard

    ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Sisvel announced today that it has made substantial early progress toward the formation of a new WiFi 802.11n patent pool. Working with a group of prominent companies that hold essential 802.11 patents, Sisvel recently held the first pool facilitation meeting in mid-January in Las Vegas. "Sisvel's 802.11 group took major steps forward at this first meeting," noted General Richard Neal, President of Sisvel US, Inc., adding that "the group developed a shared vision for the structure of the pool and established an ambitious timeline to finalize and launch the pool by the third quarter of this year."

    Nine patent owners are currently participating in Sisvel's 802.11n pool facilitation process, and Sisvel is in advanced discussions with several other patent owners interested in joining. The facilitation process, which Sisvel launched after being selected by a number of leading 802.11 patent owners, remains open to other companies holding patents believed to be essential for 802.11 standard specifications, as defined by standard documents IEEE Std. 802.11-2007 and IEEE Std. 802.11n-2009. Candidate patents must be reviewed for essentiality by an independent evaluator.

    As ratified by the IEEE, document IEEE Std. 802.11-2007 represents the base version of the standard that merged and includes the following eight prior amendments: 802.11a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j. Document IEEE Std. 802.11n-2009 is a further amendment to the 2007 standard document to add enhancements for higher throughput.

    The next meeting will take place in March 2011. To complete patent evaluations in time for that meeting, arrangements for patent evaluations should be made as soon as possible. Detailed information on patent submission, as well as other procedures for participating in the facilitation process, can be obtained from Sisvel by sending an email to the following address: wifi@sisvel.com.

    About IEEE 802.11

    IEEE 802.11 is a family of specifications for wireless local area network (WLAN) communications in the bands from 2.4, up to 5 GHz. The 802.11 standard is a set of evolving specifications. In 1997 the IEEE published the document IEEE Std. 802.11-1997, as the first wireless LAN standard. In the following years many enhancement versions of 802.11 were approved to cope with the WLAN fast growing market. In 2007, the IEEE 802.11 Task Group created the IEEE 802.11-2007, a single specification that merged 8 amendments (802.11a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j) with the legacy standard. IEEE 802.11n is a recent amendment which builds on the previous specifications by adding multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, together with many other enhancement features. The IEEE has officially approved the amendment in October 2009 as IEEE Std. 802.11n-2009.

    About Sisvel

    Started in 1982 when Sisvel S.p.A. was founded in Italy, the Sisvel Group has become a world leader in managing intellectual property and maximizing the value of patent rights. The Sisvel Group is global in scope and reach, with companies in Italy (Sisvel in None Torinese and Edico in Rome), Luxembourg (Sisvel International), the United States (Sisvel US and Audio MPEG in Metropolitan Washington, DC), China (Sisvel Hong Kong), Japan (Sisvel Japan in Tokyo), and Germany (Sisvel Germany in Stuttgart), and with almost one hundred professionals worldwide with technical, legal, and licensing expertise.

    Sisvel has a long history of managing successful patent portfolios including those related to the audio compression standards known as MP3 and MPEG Audio. In addition, Sisvel administers patent pools for the CDMA2000 family of cellular telecommunications standards, the UHF-RFID air interface standard, and the DVB-T and DVB-T2 broadcast standard, and is currently facilitating the creation of a LTE and DVB-C2 patent pool. Through its subsidiary Sisvel Technology, Sisvel is also engaged in the development of new technologies, including projects for 3D television and broadcasting.