Intellectual property rights issues have plagued WRAP. Three different parties have filed for patents on WRAP. These intellectual property issues caused the IEEE to introduce CCMP into the 802.11i standard and make WRAP an optional component of RSN (Robust Secure Network).

What is WRAP (Wireless Robust Authenticated Protocol)?

WRAP (Wireless Robust Authenticated Protocol) is an encryption protocol in the 802.11i standard. WRAP is based upon the Offset Codebook (OCB) mode of AES. WRAP is being Replaced with CCMP

One interesting problem with the patent system is that one institution, the patent and trademark office, determines whether a patent is valid but a different institution, the courts, determine whether one infringes. It is entirely possible for the two institutions to interpret a patent differently and for either a non-infringer to be wrongly convicted or an infringer to get away with their crime. The case of MIPS Technologies v Lexra was ultimately settled out of court and the request for reexamination of the patent was dropped. To this day there is no precedent protecting the MIPS-I instruction set from being cloned. It is interesting to watch as the Chinese company, BLX, makes and sells MIPS instruction set processors in China, presumably without paying anything to MIPS Technologies for the privilege of not being sued.