Allow me to do some general pondering…

1. We know that Context Awareness is a real thing that is happening and that many if not all of the big players are or will be involved.

2. We know that EDIG has already approached at least some of the players (probably using NDAs to protect the Nunchi patents while they were still pending), but we don't know who or how many entities they've contacted, nor what level of interest has been generated thus far.

3. We know that there are often many ways to accomplish the same thing. Some are patentable and some are not. Some ways are better or might be preferable to others. We don't know whether the Nunchi patents are or will be seen as valuable in the sense that they provide anything that is necessary or preferred by any of the CA (Context Awareness) players.

My question is whether we have "the" way to accomplish what Nunchi does or only "a" way to accomplish it... and if once an entity understood what Nunchi does, whether they might choose to license even if just to avoid a potential future lawsuit. Consider...

1. "With granted patent rights in hand", EDIG can openly contact anyone they want without even an NDA. They can freely market (get the word out) Nunchi. They can say something like: "We see you're developing CA systems/apps and wanted you to know about our offering. And oh by the way if you're already doing the same thing as Nunchi, you could be violating our patents and if we were to decide to sue you, rest assured it would be willful since you obviously know about Nunchi now." They wouldn't come right out and say that last part of course, but they could delicately communicate that possibility.

2. A company wouldn't have to use Nunchi technology exactly as designed in order to take a license. In other words, they could have developed their own system to achieve what Nunchi does with enough overlap in that it could still violate some of our claims. They could choose to license Nunchi without redesigning their own system. They could still use their own design/tech but they'd also be covered from a potential Nunchi infringement standpoint.

3. EDIG is not a 'greedy' company. I could easily see (especially early) licensees not having to pay very much for a Nunchi license. But we know that even a very small royalty on such a huge product segment (cell phones, tablets, etc.) could still amount to huge revenues for a company the size of EDIG.

I have not yet had the time to go over the Nunchi patents as I'd like, but my sense is that EDIG may once again be hoping to become a 'standard' within the CA space. The key difference is that this time around they seem to be out ahead of the game and may be aggressively pursuing up front licenses as the market develops rather than waiting until much later and only then try to sue for past infringement. The implication is also out there for those who refuse to take a Nunchi license that EDIG can and will sue if the company believes that they infringe. Just look at EDIG's track record. However I think this should be the worst-case scenario.

The best-case scenario is that EDIG already has or is very close to having a true partnership arrangement and/or license agreements as they suggested was the goal when Nunchi was first introduced to us. Just from the articles that have been posted here, it appears that the CA space has much momentum and will soon become widely recognized and utilized. If EDIG is going to participate in any meaningful way, I've got to believe that it will be happening within the next year. Perhaps EDIG is in the right place with the right patents once again, except this time around they could be much better prepared to capitalize on them. Could 2013 be like 1999?

- Sinkman