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January

30, 2015


Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Mr. Howard E. Michel, President & CEO, IEEE (h.michel@ieee.org)
Mr. Bruce Kraemer, President, IEEE-SA & Director, IEEE (bkraemer@marvell.com)
3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10016-5997

VIA EMAIL


RE: IEEE-SA Bylaw Updates

Dear Mr. Michel and Mr. Kraemer,


The IEEE-SA has now approved certain clarifications to the text of Section 6
of the IEEE Standard Association Bylaws, addressing policies relating to intellectual
property rights and commitments made for essential patents applicable to IEEE
standards (the IPR Updates). The signatories below represent a broad cross-
section of companies and thought leaders interested in IEEE standards. We include
chipmakers, OEMs and technology developers that utilize and rely on IEEE-
standardized devices. We each have an interest in continued innovation at IEEE,
and the continued viability of the IEEEs ecosystem. Now that the IPR Updates are
being provided for final approval by the IEEE Board of Directors, we write to
express our support for the IPR Updates, and to urge the IEEE Board to support the
IEEE-SAs efforts. We request that you please share our letter with the full Board.


The IPR Updates reflect a careful, reasonable approach to IEEE-SAs IPR
policy. They earned approval via three separate votes at the IEEE-SA including
supermajority approval at the Board of Governors and Standards Board. They
support legitimate patent holder interests in obtaining reasonable compensation for
declared-essential patents, while also protecting companies that make, use and sell
devices using IEEE standards from unfair licensing and litigation practices that can
degrade the IEEE ecosystem.


For example, in one recent case a patent assertion entity sought license fees
of thousands of dollars per Wi-Fi chip against hotels and small retail businesses. The
IPR Updates will help to protect businesses using IEEE standards from such
improper patent assertions by providing considerations that should be followed in
assessing royalties for SEPs. This is particularly important as the market for
connected devices expands with the growth of the Internet of Things and
incorporation of IEEE standards into retail, automotive, industrial and many other
applications of interest to the signatories below.


The IPR Updates address significant issues for the IEEE and its Members,
including at least the following:

Addressing explicit limits on injunctions where compensation is otherwise


available to the patent holder, which can assist the parties to negotiate
royalties without undue leverage or unfair threats to exclude businesses
from the market;
Addressing considerations relevant to reasonable compensation, which can
assist parties in negotiating reasonable licenses and assist decision-makers
in the event of a dispute;
Clarifying that the licensing obligation benefits companies that implement
and use IEEE technologies, not just some companies based on their particular
business model; and
Providing clarity that licensing obligations must survive patent transfers.


We appreciate and support the IEEE-SAs efforts to address these important matters
in the IPR Updates.


We thank you for your attention to these matters and urge the IEEE Board of
Directors to support the IPR Updates.





Sincerely,



Ira Blumberg
Michael A. Carrier
Vice President of
Distinguished Professor
Intellectual Property
Rutgers Law School
Lenovo Group Limited

Mark Chandler
Senior Vice President and
General Counsel
Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cathy Chou
Vice President
Sceptre Inc.

Jorge L. Contreras
Associate Professor
S.J. Quinney College of Law
University of Utah

David Djavaherian
President
PacTech Law, P.C.

Cindy L. Faatz
Director of Intel Standards
Group
Intel Corporation

Richard J. Gilbert
Emeritus Professor of
Economics and Professor
of the Graduate School,
Department of Economics
University of California,
Berkeley

Tae Kim
Vice President
Samsung Electronics Co
Ltd.

Calvin Leong
Director of Legal
Department
Kingston Technology
Company, Inc.

Mark A. Lemley
William H. Neukom
Professor
Stanford Law School

Daryl Lim
Assistant Professor
John Marshall School of
Law

Meredith McKenzie
Vice President and Deputy
General Counsel
Juniper Networks, Inc.

Fiona M. Scott Morton


Theodore Nierenberg
Professor of Economics,
Yale School of
Management

Alessandro Orsi
Sr. Director & Managing
Counsel, IP Transactions
and Counseling
Hewlett-Packard
Espaola S.L.

Anthony Peterman
Executive Director & Chief
Patent Counsel
Dell Inc.

Martin L. Shively
General Manager,
Corporate Standards
Microsoft Corporation

A.J. Wang
Chief Technology Officer
D-Link Systems, Inc.

BJ Watrous
Vice President and Chief IP
Counsel
Apple Inc.

William Waung, Sr.


Director, Intellectual
Property
Sierra Wireless, Inc.

Gail Levine
Vice President, Intellectual
Property & Public Policy
Verizon Communications
Inc.

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