Vodafone, InterTrust Make Muddled Mobile Content Protection Space More Muddled

Earlier this year we had a few stories about the mess that had come out of the effort to standardize a mobile DRM content protection scheme, including pooling all of the related patents. Of course, as often happens in such situations, some folks got greedy and the aggregate amount they wanted to charge proved to be way too rich for almost everyone. Not much has happened publicly since then, but it's not a good sign for the group to see Vodafone just go off and license Intertrust's patents separately. While the article notes that those patents will be included in any eventual standard, it certainly shows that Vodafone has no confidence that any agreement is coming any time soon.