A Year Ago: 3Com, IBM to swap more technology

3Com and IBM Monday announced a cross-licensing agreement to license exclusive patents in the areas of networking and communications. Both companies are hoping to speed development of new products through the deal.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, 3Com and IBM will each receive a license under all patents that relate to their specific fields of interest.

IBM will license to 3Com patents on various networking technologies, including those concerning server access, server load balancing, Web caching, Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Ethernet, and virtual private networks.

3Com, meanwhile, will license to IBM patents it holds for its Palm handheld connected organisers, network interface cards, modem technologies, network hubs, routers and switches, broadband networking, and network-based telephony.

The companies already have had technology-development arrangements for seven years. For example, 3Com used IBM's custom chip development and manufacturing for the 3Com CoreBuilder line of local area network switches.