It’s an age-old story that is becoming commonplace in technology today. Vendors invent technologies. Vendors deploy technologies. Standards bodies agree on standards. Vendor A claims patent protection over standards. Moaning and groaning ensues throughout the marketplace.
It’s an age-old story that is becoming commonplace in technology today. Vendors invent technologies. Vendors deploy technologies. Standards bodies agree on standards. Vendor A claims patent protection over standards. Moaning and groaning ensues throughout the marketplace.
Home networking start-up SercoNet was quietly awarded patent number 6,842,459 on Jan. 11, 2005 that protects, among other things, LANs within a residence or other building, including both wired and non-wired segments, in which a device:
• Has a plug or outlet shape to it. Has two ports – one for transmitting data through the wiring and a second port that is wireless, (including RF and IR, etc.). Has a bridge between the two ports inside the device.
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So in a nutshell, SercoNet says that any HomePlug, HPNA, MOCA or any other device that relies on some sort of plug in adapter and which also has a wireless component, is subject to this patent. Given the convergence of wireless and wireline technologies in the home, if upheld on any challenges in the courts, this would probably cover at least one aspect of most vendors’ product lines.
We’re not lawyers, but anytime someone comes up with something sweeping like this, we think it merits some ignorant, high-level, “our moms wish we had become lawyers” opinions on the impact of this on the industry.
First things first – what are the limits of this patent? What’s not covered with this patent, as far as we can see? Well obviously anything that does not meet all three criteria, but significantly anything not in this wall-wart plug-in style form factor. If it is part of the gangbox unit or something that is remote from the wall via a power line (like in HomePlug built into a router) or other non-plug-in device, it’s not covered. So if your device has a different form factor, you’re probably OK.
The second question then is: how far does this patent extend? Well, this is not limited to 802.11 wireless but rather can be anything wireless including sound and light (IR). So wireless speakers and IR blasters could be covered if they have the right form factor. Other RF systems – like Bluetooth or UWB – could also be covered by the patent.
We have long advocated an in-home strategy that combines a wireline backbone with in-room wireless distribution to give a whole-home footprint. At CES, D-Link was showing off a TMT Coaxial Networks home networking system that had a built-in form factor – that is, built into the faceplate itself rather than a plug-in form factor – and that would not, to us, seem to be addressable by this patent. However, we’ve got some older Siemens Speedstream HomePlug/802.11 units that combine 802.11 and electric line networking – they just plug into the electrical outlets. Seems to us those would be covered.
All of this only matters inasmuch as SercoNet, as it says, intends to pursue compliance.
So what’s the import for service providers? Well first off, in one sense it’s good to have some of the standards and patents issues put to bed early in product development cycles so that you can be fairly confident about product cost structures going forward. More than one deployment plan has been messed up with last minute cost increases – this can be a case where forewarned is forearmed.
As providers expand their in-home strategies, CPE may indeed expand to include devices like those covered under the patent. If you have been designing your own in-home distribution based around similar architectures, be sure to give your vendors a heads up so they can plan (or not plan) accordingly.
Finally, while getting a patent is not a sure sign of an technology coming into its own, this to us validates an approach we’ve strongly pushed – the integration of wireline and wireless to achieve whole house coverage. That’s what got this on our radar screen, and so to us, it’s just another validation of that approach. If you’re a service provider looking to expand the reach of your network within the customer premises, make sure you take note of this patent and the solutions it describes.
