From: utzoo!henry Newsgroups: net.lan,net.dcom Title: token rings patented? Article-I.D.: utzoo.2459 Posted: Mon Sep 13 18:41:10 1982 Received: Mon Sep 13 18:41:10 1982 >From the 25 August 1982 issue of Electronics: Few speakers at a technical meeting have commanded the attention given Olaf Soderblom when he addressed the token-passing-ring working group of the IEEE 802 committee on local-network standards on August 4 in Boulder, Colo. Soderblom, a Swedish engineer, holds a patent he claims is basic to token-ring technology. If he maintains his present position on licensing, the IEEE may abandon its token-ring standardization effort. ...a license to use the patent would cost $25000 plus a royalty of $45 for each work station in the network. IEEE policy is to standardize on patented processes only when they are made available on a nonexclusive basis at what is considered a "reasonable" price. [Examples are Ethernet at $1000 and IEEE 488 handshaking protocols at a few hundred]. When 802 members took a straw poll on Soderblom's proposed fees, one delegate reported "'reasonable' got zero votes". ... Soderblom claims basic token-ring technology under US patent 4,293,948, issued 6 Oct 1981, titled "Data Transmission System". The validity of this patent with respect to the proposed IEEE standard is questioned, mainly because it describes a system with a master controller... Soderblom's response to this argument is that even in the 802 protocol, some terminal always acts as the controller. If this argument fails to wash, he claims the patent is valid under a patent-law principle known as the doctrine of equivalents. Legal and technical arguments aside, Soderblom's claims are taken seriously because he has sold a license for this patent and a number of others to IBM [for an amount rumored to be $5 million or more]... ...[It is rumored, however,] that IBM originally bought licenses to Soderblom patents not for a ring network, but for a loop, a technology that does employ a central controller. The loop technology has been in use since 1975... [Attendees' arguments that the license fees are grossly excessive at near-future equipment prices are said to have had some effect on Soderblom.] [A number of companies working on token-ring technology have decided to hold off on product announcements until Soderblom's claims are resolved.]