Openwave Systems Inc. and Geoworks Corp. ended their year-long patent dispute last week with a cross-licensing settlement, ending a fight closely watched by wireless Internet players concerned about possible ramifications for the entire WAP industry.
Under the terms of the settlement, Openwave will receive a worldwide license to the disputed Flexible User Interface patent held by Geoworks, as well as a second patent from Geoworks to be named later. The agreement allows all Openwave customers-carriers, manufacturers and developers-access to the same patent without requiring an additional licensing agreement with Geoworks.
In return, Geoworks will get a license to an Openwave messaging patent and another patent to be chosen at a later date.
“We are very pleased to have resolved our differences and now look forward to opening a new and positive chapter in our relationship with Geoworks,” said Alan Black, Openwave senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief financial officer. “This agreement benefits both of our companies, our respective customers and partners and the broader WAP community as a whole.”
Both companies said they will move to dismiss their respective motions in federal district court and in the International Trade Commission.
The Flexible User Interface patent in question defines the process by which an application can operate on different devices using different user interfaces by dictating the minimum requirements needed for it to run. Geoworks received the patent in 1994 for the United States and Japan, and in May 1999, made an essential property rights claim in the WAP Forum.
Last January, Geoworks publicly unveiled a licensing program for it, claiming both the WAP specification and its Wireless Markup Language employ this user interface, and that any WAP-related company or service therefore owed it royalties.
The following May, Phone.com Inc. filed suit against Geoworks, contending the Geoworks patent was neither valid nor enforceable, and that the company did not infringe upon it regardless. Geoworks shot back with a countersuit and later took the added step of asking the ITC to bar the import of Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. phones featuring the Phone.com UP.Browser technology.
As the two firms waged their war of words and court action, WAP technology and services took a beating from the press and other critics as initial applications failed to meet the high expectations put upon them. This battle within the WAP Forum was just another place to point fingers.
Late last year, Phone.com and Software.com merged to form Openwave, which Ben Linder, Openwave vice president of marketing, said had no bearing on the settlement reached shortly after.
“The decision was a pure business decision. It achieved what we and our customers needed,” he told RCR Wireless News. “It was the prudent thing to do. One, it eliminates the nuisance of dealing with a lawsuit; and two, we don’t like to spend lawyer fees on litigation when we can settle. The terms were attractive enough to justify dropping the suit.”
However, Linder did not go as far to say that the company has changed its mind about the validity of the Flex UI patent.
“The validity of the patent was not decided,” he said, “and it will not be now that the case has been dismissed. This was the expedient and most positive route.”
