Steve Stroh is a highly-recommended stop for anyone interested in wireless technology. He has the sources, the background, and the writing skills to make it come alive.

So I was honored when he chose to respond to my recent piece on Wi-LAN. As usual, he has the facts nailed.

Enjoy.

To be fair, Wi-LAN's OFDM patent predates 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.16/WiMAX. Wi-LAN was very open (obnoxiously so, at times) about the existence of the patent and that they felt, and planned to enforce, that no one could build 802.11a (and follow-on systems such as 802.11g and 802.16/WiMAX) without running afoul of Wi-LAN's patent.

Wi-LAN's purchase of the Lamarr patent was entirely symbolic; what they bought was literally the patent document; having long since expired by the time Wi-LAN bought it, it had worth only as a historical document. The income that Lamarr received from Wi-LAN for the patent was the ONLY income that Lamarr EVER realized from the Lamarr/Antheil patent for Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum.

My take. The use of patents as a business weapon by a company falling of its own weight is what I'm on about. Steve's background knowledge helps document the point.

Patents are a limited right to profit from an invention for a limited time. They are a license to produce. They should not be a license to prevent. The test of a patent's worthiness should include a measure of the holder's own efforts to exploit the patent. And the transferability of patents should be limited. It's a production license, not a legal hunting license.