Context:
- Pool administrator Sisvel currently manages a variety of communications-related patent programs, including the DVB-T2 pool, which offered 100% of the stack and achieved a 95% penetration rate and its Wi-Fi 6 pool, which transitioned into the Wi-Fi Multimode program at the start of 2026 (January 22, 2026 Sisvel press release). Most recently, it launched a point-of-sales (POS) pool, covering 2G to 5G cellular telecommunications standards with Huawei, Nokia, LG Electronics, BlackBerry, JVCKENWOOD, and SK Telecom already onboard as licensors (April 1, 2026 ip fray article).
- Dubbed âEthernet on steroidsâ, Ultra Ethernet is the next generation in high-speed wired networking. It is an open, interoperable architecture that meets the needs of AI and high-performance computing workloads by moving data at unprecedented speed and scale. It is a significant overhaul of traditional Ethernet, with the Ultra Ethernet Consortium 1.0 specification, brought in this year, being the foundation for a new era of networking.
Whatâs new: Sisvel has today launched a formal call for patents for a proposed new patent pool focusing on Ultra Ethernet technology (April 29, 2026 Sisvel press release). This follows extensive analysis of the rapidly evolving wired networking landscape that has identified a growing need for an efficient licensing solution in the space, it said in its press release.
Direct impact and wider ramifications: Sisvel believes that patented inventions owned by a wide range of innovators are essential to the implementation of the Ultra Ethernet specification (v.1.0.2), making a âtransparent and balancedâ patent pool âcriticalâ to promoting Ultra Ethernet adoption. There has also already been some litigation in the Ethernet (not Ultra Ethernet) standard-essential patent (SEP) space, including a significant case involving Renault and Broadcom, in which the former was issued an injunction by the Landgericht MĂźnchen I a couple of months ago (Munich I Regional Court: February 6, 2026 ip fray article).
In a statement today, Sisvelâs Chief IP Officer Heath Hoglund (who joined from Via Licensing Alliance at the start of this year: January 7, 2026 ip fray article), said the company is âexcitedâ to make this call for patents in the Ultra Ethernet domain. He added:
âThe technology is of growing importance and one that sits very well with the highly successful communications-related programmes that we have run over the years. Such long-established expertise makes Sisvel ideally placed to deliver an effective pool solution for the market.â
âEthernet on Steroidsâ
Previously, the highest standard for AI was InifiniBand because it was lossless (data compression that reduces file size without losing quality) and had extremely low latency. Ultra Ethernet, however, fixes all of the issues of Ethernet by modifying how Ethernet handles data, making it smarter and faster without losing the ability to run on standard fiber and switches.
The Ultra Ethernet Consortium was founded by AMD, Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, HPE, Intel, Meta, and Microsoft and has been dubbed âEthernet on Steroidsâ for the AI era. While it maintains the cables and connectors of the previous generation, it replaces the “brain” of the network to make it fast enough to train the world’s largest AI models.