[Link: wi-fiplanet.com]

While this article sounds some what grim, does anybody think this effects some of the products that are already going or under development. (Control4, Leviton Zwave, and etc.) When I first read this I thought big companies would have already worked this out, but then I thought about the Blackberry problems. Has anyone heard of this litagation past, present, or future?

There's nothing in the article to imply that their patents are Superior except for the superiority that you get by being first and by wielding a big stick. That's bully superiority. It totally does not address whether they have any other kind of superiority.

It's great that they are out to protect themselves, but it is too bad that in doing so they might be slowing their own industry as a whole.

This behavior also gives them the negative distinction of being in the same group as Bose and Monster (I was about to write "class," but that might imply these guys are classy), who think they own everything because they have patents and are willing to go to lengths quite over the top to be sure that their expansive concept of their patent rights are not infringed.

I would agree with your comments, I would like to clarify by saying that the Lutron intellectual property rights of wireless two way communication sound to be Superior or protected even if it's just by being the first on the block. I was most surprised by the comment that the zigbee protocol was the most at risk.

What about licensing?

Bose and Monsters litigation is never about patents, it's about trademarks, quite a different thing. If you have invested R&D money and have an idea that you can patent, you have to defend them, or you have waisted millions.

Depending on what their patent states, if it literaly says "two way communication with a light switch" like the article states then you are looking at something more like a BS Monster thing. It is hard to believe that Lutron's AM frequency lighting control with base stations patent is being infringed on by Zigbee, what a joke. In this case the patent seems to be based on nothing but the idea of "two way communication with a light switch" and has nothing to do with the means by which this happens.


Here are all of Lutron's patents..
[Link: patft.uspto.gov]