HP announced the opening of an intellectual property (IP) licensing center to serve the fast-growing Asia Pacific market. Located in Singapore, the center provides companies, governments, research institutes and universities in the region with access to HP's technology and IP through licensing agreements.
The Asia Pacific IP Licensing Center will initially focus on developing new technology licensing agreements in Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, India and China, with plans to expand to other countries in the region as business needs arise. Licenses are available for HP's know-how, patents, trademarks and copyrights in a broad range of technology areas, including consumer electronics, emerging technologies, semiconductors, networking, software and storage.
Bangalore, India-based Prodigy Labs is one of the first companies to take advantage of the center with its agreement to license HP's gesture-based keyboard technology. Developed by HP Labs India, the gesture-based keyboard is an electronic pen-based device that can be used to create text in languages that use phonetic scripts, rather the Roman alphabet common in Western languages. With the keyboard, users input data the way most people learn to write--with a pen.
Harsha K. V., managing director, Prodigy Labs, said, "Developing innovative products such as the gesture-based keyboard requires a significant investment in research and development, which can be a barrier for companies with limited R&D resources. With this licensing agreement, Prodigy Labs gains access to HP's intellectual property and vast research capabilities, which helps us quickly develop new products while lowering our investments and getting to market faster."
Joe Beyers, vice president, IP Licensing, HP, stated, "HP's strong legacy of innovation has generated a vast IP portfolio, including more than 30,000 patents. Our IP licensing program ensures that important technology gets to market through the transfer of our patents and technical know-how. The expansion of our IP licensing program to Asia broadens our ability to monetize our IP assets and realize a greater return on our R&D investment."
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