Broadcom, one of the founders of the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), which aims to develop an overarching interoperability standard for the internet of things, has quit only three months after the group was formed.
The OIC, has added 27 new companies to its ranks and announced its board of directors. If its platform makes an impact on the shape of the internet of things (IoT) it will provide powerful leverage for the companies that now sit on its board – Samsung, Intel, Mediatek and Cisco. But Broadcom leaves a gaping hole in that list.
The chip supplier’s name was removed from the member list on the OIC website with no reference or explanation. The reason seems to relate to the always-thorny issues of IP ownership in the world of standards. According to sources who spoke to GigaOM’s
Stacey Higginbotham, Broadcom left because of an OIC requirement that all code donated to the initiative was done so on the condition that the submitter would not sue over that intellectual property.
That would scupper Broadcom’s apparent plans to licence code to non-members of the OIC, as well as any direct litigation with OIC members should disputes have risen to the surface.
Gary Martz, an OIC spokesperson and Intel staffer, told Higginbotham that Broadcom had indeed left, and confirmed that the OIC had implemented a ‘RAND-Z’ provision, which requires members to offer zero-rate licences to members (though not necessarily non-members).
Intel itself has long been a supporter of zero-licensing schemes, contributing large swathes of its huge IPR pile, but insists on clear rules being applied to prevent the uncertainties and lawsuits that can accompany open source and standards efforts.
Martz singled out another IoT-related effort, the AllSeen Alliance led by rival Qualcomm, for lacking any such agreements. “That’s why Intel couldn’t join the AllSeen Alliance. There’s no IP policy,” he said.
In fact, Qualcomm itself – the king of IP policy – does not belong directly to AllSeen, despite having contributed its AllJoyn code. The membership is actually held by its subsidiary Qualcomm Connected Experiences and the chip giant has worked hard to establish clear lines between its powerful technology licensing arm and its growing open source activities.
We are still waiting for direct comment from both Broadcom and the OIC, but big companies are not in the habit of upping sticks and leaving alliances they help establish – especially when they can afford the fees as Broadcom certainly can. Evidently, the RAND-Z agreement was a complete deal-breaker for Broadcom, and it will be interesting to see which flagpole it chooses to pin its allegiance too in the IoT – if any.
But back to the new members. The OIC was founded by Atmel, Broadcom, Dell, Intel and its subsidiary Wind River, and Samsung. Intel and Samsung have now taken the highest level of membership, Diamond, Wind River is Gold, while the other founders are all Platinum members.
Among the new joiners, Cisco and Samsung’s Electro-Mechanics division are at Diamond level; and Eyeball Networks is Platinum, while new Gold members are Acer, ActnerLab, Allion, Aepona, Cryptosoft, Global Channel Resources, Gluu, IIOT Foundation Japan, InFocus, Laplink Software, Mashery, McAfee, Metago, New Aer, Nitero, OSS Nokalva, Realtek, Remo Software, Roost, SmartThings, Thug Design, VMC Consulting and Zula.
The new board of directors comprises Jon-Deok Choi, deputy head of software R&D at Samsung Electronics, who becomes president plus Imad Sousou, general manager of Intel’s Open Source Tech Center; Bernard Shrung, GM for new business development at Mediatek; and Kip Compton, VP of the IoT systems and software group at Cisco.
The party line from the new president is that “we are following a proven path of innovation with the OIC, by encouraging industry-wide collaboration, and our board members represent our commitment to provide a standard across a broad range of market sectors facing challenges from emerging IoT technology trends. Our leadership and growing membership will create a single standard to solve connectivity and interoperability challenges in order to support the billions of connected devices coming online.”