WAP Survives IPR Issue

Geoworks' Jan. 19 announcement that it plans to charge license fees for the use of its patented WAP intellectual property rights (IPR) initially prompted ominous prognostications that WAP's demise had begun. Cooler heads have since prevailed, but small developers remain uneasy.

Geoworks claims that its patent (No. 5,327,529) for a flexible user interface for mobile communications devices is essential to operating WAP. Geoworks will charge an annual fee of $20,000 to application developers that earn more than $1 million. Platform developers would pay a similar fee, plus a $1 royalty per subscriber.

Also criticized was Geoworks' IPR claim to wireless markup language (WML), the protocol used to format Internet content for delivery to portable devices. Manufacturers also will be assessed licensing fees, and that could prove the most lucrative aspect of the Geoworks licensing program, analysts said.

Geoworks argues that the IPR request is not dissimilar to other wireless IPRs and is allowed by the WAP Forum under its "fair-and-reasonable" provision.

"One of the tenets of the WAP Forum is the IPR," said Rhonda Jobe, Geoworks vice president, marketing. "Each company that has an IPR declares that within the WAP Forum. We did that last May. NEC, Nokia, Phone.com and Diversinet have, as well. We happen to be the first one to come out with a licensing program."

Major application developers are the primary target of the Geoworks IPR, which Jobe said is similar to other licensing deals in the computer industry.

"The idea is that it's a fair, reasonable and pretty inexpensive way to use those applications over and over again and grow the use of WAP," she said.

Despite reports that the WAP Forum was beside its collective self following Geoworks' IPR announcement, Greg Williams, forum chairman, declared it a non-issue in a prepared statement released Feb. 1.

"Intellectual property cross-licensing arrangements and royalty payments are common in the wireless industry and are a non-issue for the WAP Forum and the growth of the standard," Williams said.

That's cold comfort for many of the forum's smaller companies, such as Infinite Technologies, whose WAPlite server allows any company to deliver WML content to its users. For now, Infinite hopes that the Geoworks IPR won't force it to alter its business plan. But although the lack of concern by Ericsson, Nokia and Phone.com has allowed company officials to relax for the moment, they are floored by Geoworks' claim to WML.

"It's so broad: The areas that are being claimed as patented, you could make the same claim about HTML," said Allan Carter, Infinite vice president of marketing. "Imagine the royalties that you could get then. That's every Web site on the planet!"

Infinite, however, isn't concerned that WAP and the delicate alliance that nurtures it will suffer because the Geoworks licensing program still has widespread vendor support.

"The thing that killed HDML: was no support for it at the manufacturer level," Carter said. "But with the backing from manufacturers developing and releasing phones, I think it's safe to say that the reports of WAP's death are greatly exaggerated."