Patent Law

CSIRO gets settlement in WiFi wars

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

AUSTRALIA'S top science agency has walloped some of the world's biggest industrial giants in the US patent courts to bring the country a pay check worth up to $1 billion over the next five to 10 years.

The CSIRO has won its long-running battle to enforce a patent on technology used in Wi-fi connections that have become virtually ubiquitous in laptops and other devices around the world.

A lot of IT folks were defendants: The CSIRO's case dates back to 2005 when it sued wireless component provider Buffalo for intellectual property breaches. A further 12 companies including Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Netgear, Buffalo, D-Link, Belkin, SMC, Accton, and 3Com joined the case after CSIRO lawyers won an injunction preventing it from selling its products.

See previous IPBiz posts, including:

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/12/csiro-wins-transfer-of-nd-cal-wifi.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/11/has-csiro-spent-about-10-million-in.html

Full post as published by IPBiz on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).