Broadcom has left the Open Interconnect Consortium, a standards group for the Internet of Things that was created by Intel as an alternative to Qualcomm’s AllSeen Alliance. Sources say the split had to do with a disagreement over intellectual property. OIC members are required to donate code to the group, and additionally must agree to forfeit the right to sue over that IP in the future. The AllSeen Alliance does not have such a provision, which is a primary difference between the two organizations.

OIC spokesperson and Intel employee Gary Martz confirmed that Broadcom, one of the consortium’s founding members, has left the OIC. He also confirmed the existence of the legal provisions in the IP licensing agreements — and the distinction between the two groups.

“That’s why Intel couldn’t join the AllSeen Alliance,” he said. “There’s no IP policy.”

“The standards group was formed this summer as a competitor to Qualcomm’s efforts to push AllJoyn as a device-to-device protocol that would help identify and assess the capabilities of connected devices,” reports GigaOM. “However, when the OIC put out a press release last week touting several new members, Broadcom’s name was missing from the founding members listed in the press release.”

While the AllSeen Alliance is pushing AllJoyn, the Open Interconnect Consortium — led by Intel, Cisco, Samsung, Dell, MediaTek and others — is planning to develop standards based on existing technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Zigbee. The group also plans to launch its own open-source software this year.