Bluetooth licensing fees?

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Jens Jespersen — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 13:39:11 GMT

Øyvind - are you sure about this ? I'm quite sure, that you don't have to comply with FCC and IC unless you want to use your product in US/Canada. Whether you are using bluetooth or "just" another radio, you have to comply with R&TTE (which by the way is changed later this year to RE) A way to make certification cheeper is to use a radiomodule that has been tested. Then the certification should be easier. Jens

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Menno — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 12:42:09 GMT

Perhaps this is a silly question but we are not planning on selling our products but lease them. Will we in that case still have to pay the licensing fees?

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Emil — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:01:17 GMT

In case I need to have builds making BLE version and a radio version, and both uses common sd_ functions like for wait for event. But I guess I can just rewrite everything to be independent from the softdevice when it comes to common functions like sd_app_event_wait() vs __WFE()...

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Øyvind Karlsen — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 10:58:32 GMT

Why would you want the SoftDevice if you are not using BLE?

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Emil — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 10:51:06 GMT

I guess just having the softdevice there without using BLE is OK?

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Emil — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:34:38 GMT

Ok. Thank you again for this very useful and valuable information! Good to be aware of these gotchas before proceeding further into development.

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Øyvind Karlsen — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:33:17 GMT

Usually you will send your prototype in to a certified laboratory to do the regulatory tests, so the rates they charge will vary(I don't have actual numbers for you).

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Emil — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:26:40 GMT

Cool! Right now it sounds like a better option, but not sure how big that chunk is compared to the total of FCC regulatory requirements, R&TTE regulatory requirements and IC regulatory requirements....

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Øyvind Karlsen — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:24:20 GMT

It would save you the costs, we don't charge you for anything after you have bought our chip, we even offer free technical support here on devzone and at the mypage support portal.

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Emil — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:20:30 GMT

Thanks! But would that save me costs? Or would it incur me a secret Nordic Semiconductor fee? :)

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Øyvind Karlsen — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:19:40 GMT

Prices range from 2500-8000$.

You can definitely use the nRF51 in proprietary mode, have a look at the transmitter example(found in source_folder\examples\peripheral\radio\transmitter) from the SDK.

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Emil — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:17:10 GMT

I am not sure what the price is, but can't possibly be low. I don't really need bluetooth, it's just a convenience. Can I use NRF51 DK to do the same as your proprietary nrf24l01+ ? Or would that cost money too?

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Øyvind Karlsen — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:15:38 GMT

Yes, you are still using Bluetooth technology, so you will need to pass compliance and certification.

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

gaminn — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 12:42:10 GMT

Do I need to pass Bluetooth compliance and certification even when I'm not advertising the product as Bluetooth-enabled product (i.e. I don't mention Bluetooth or their logo anywhere)?

RE: Bluetooth licensing fees?

Øyvind Karlsen — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 11:35:45 GMT

Hi Emil,

To sell a BLE product you need to comply with the following:

FCC regulatory requirements
R&TTE regulatory requirements
IC regulatory requirements
Bluetooth compliance and certification

Please see the Regulatory and Compliance standards whitepaper, for more infomation about the Bluetooth compliance and certification, see this post as well as START B on the bluetooth SIG pages.

DFU is using our BLE stack, so it is not possible to utilize this service without using our SoftDevices. However it is possible to implement your own proprietary protocol that includes support for over-the-air firmware updates.

You can definitely create a proprietary protocol, and this would make you avoid the fees to Bluetooth SIG, however you still need to comply with the regulatory requirements.

Best regards,

Øyvind