History for IPR disclosure
Cisco's Patent Claim on VRRP and HSRP

From: http://www.ietf.org/ietf-ftp/IPR//VRRP-CISCO

Late in 1997, Cisco wrote:

>>With reference to the recently published Internet draft:

      Title    : Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol                     
      Author(s) : S. Knight, D. Weaver, D. Whipple
      Filename  : draft-whipple-vrrp-00.txt
      Pages    : 14
      Date      : 11/26/1996

>>This message is to inform you that Cisco believes that this
>>proposed protocol may infringe Cisco's patent #5,473,599,
>>Standby Router Protocol.

The original document has gone through a number of revisions and name
changes. When submitted by the vrrp WG for publication, a query was
sent to Cisco.


The following message was received on March 11:

We have done the evaluation and our response is the following:

Cisco believes that implementation of draft-ietf-vrrp-spec-05.txt will
require a license to Cisco's patent #5,473,599. If this protocol is
approved as an IETF standard, licenses will be available to any party on
reasonable, nondiscriminatory terms for implentation of the protocol.

On March 20, 1998, the definitive statement from Cisco Systems was received:

From: Martin McNealis

  The following statement is in response to recent requests for a
  clarification on Cisco Systems' position regarding both its Hot
  Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) and the Virtual Router Redundancy
  Protocol (VRRP) proposal:-


    In Cisco's assessment, the VRRP proposal does not represent
    any significantly different functionality from that available
    with HSRP and also implementation of 'draft-ietf-vrrp-spec-06.txt'
    would likely infringe on Cisco's patent #5,473,599.

    When Cisco originally learned of the VRRP proposal, the Hot
    Standby Router Protocol was then promptly offered for
    standardization with the understanding that, if approved,
    licenses for HSRP would be made available on reasonable,
    nondiscriminatory terms for implementation of the protocol.
    This offer stands for the adoption and implementation of
    HSRP.

    However, now that the 'draft-li-hsrp-01.txt' submission is
    approaching expiration and the Working Group is continuing with
    the VRRP proposal, Cisco Systems reserves the right to protect
    its intellectual property. Furthermore, Cisco takes the position
    that standardizing on another proposal that so closely mirrors
    an existing, well established, extensively deployed protocol
    is out of step with the principles and practices embodied in the
    IETF and would thus represent cause for concern within the
    industry.


    Martin McNealis
    IP Product Line Manager