Dig Out Your Patents, And Watch What You Use … $1.1 billion for a Patent Breach

Dig Out Your Patents, And Watch What You Use … $1.1 billion for a Patent Breach

And Robert J McEliece, RIP

I have a number of patents to my name. We did these patents to protect our spin-out companies from entering the market and did not have any intention to go after others who breached it. But, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has shown the power of patents by winning a $1.1 billion patent case against Apple and Broadcom:

Caltech is also suing Microsoft, HP, Dell and Samsung for the same patent breach — and which are still pending. The focus is on four patents (7,116,710, 7,421,032, 7,916,781, 8,284,833):

They relate to the work of Jin, Khandekar and McEliece. Robert McEliece is also famous for post-quantum cryptography and sadly died recently.

The patent breach focuses on the Broadcom wi-fi chips, and which are used in millions of smartphones. Apple has said that it should not be affected by this action, as they are just using chips that were supplied to them. At the core of the action is the usage of error-correcting codes: IRA (irregular repeat accumulate). These codes allow for bits to be recovered, even when they are scrambled in the communication process. They have since been integrated in the 802.11n standard, and have been the basis for millions of Broadcom chips.

The ruling could mean that those hit with patent breach claims may affect both the companies who breach the patents, and also those who use the devices affected. After the 2020 ruling, Apple and Broadcom appealed and which opened up a new trial in Feb 2022. The verdict split the awarding of $837.8 million from Apple and $270.2 million from Broadcom.

Caltech has since announced:

“As a non-profit institution of higher education, Caltech is committed to protecting its intellectual property in furtherance of its mission to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education.”

Conclusion

To me, it was sad to see Robert J McEliece passing away recently, but his impact lives on in so many ways. Because, when it comes down to it, it is not citations or grant awards that really count in research … it is your impact.

Robert J McEliece, RIP.

Here are the six patents that laid the foundations of Cybersecurity:

And laid down the security of the Internet: