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CSIRO wins landmark wi-fi settlement

By News Online's Nic MacBean

Posted 32 minutes ago

The CSIRO has won what could be a landmark settlement from Hewlett Packard over the use of patented wireless technology.

The settlement ended HP's involvement in a four-year lawsuit brought by the CSIRO on a group of technology companies, in which the organisation was seeking royalties for wi-fi technology that is used extensively on laptops and computers worldwide.

CSIRO spokesman Huw Morgan declined to elaborate on the details of the settlement, saying: "CSIRO has reached a settlement with HP in relation to wireless technology."

Since the Australian science agency received a patent for its IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi products in January 1996, the technology has been adopted as an industry standard by most notebooks and desktop computers around the world.

CSIRO started legal action against a group of technology companies in 2005, arguing that its patent was being infringed upon and it should "receive royalties from every producer of WLAN products worldwide."

If CSIRO is successful in being granted royalty rights for the technology, billions of dollars could be headed its way because of the widespread use of the wireless standard.

In 2007 CSIRO had some success when a Texas District Court imposed a permanent injunction on Buffalo Technologies importing, manufacturing, selling or using the wireless technology.

The decision was appealed last year and the injunction has been lifted while the patent issue is clarified.

Print Email Share Add to My Stories

CSIRO wins landmark wi-fi settlement

By News Online's Nic MacBean

Posted 32 minutes ago

The CSIRO has won what could be a landmark settlement from Hewlett Packard over the use of patented wireless technology.

The settlement ended HP's involvement in a four-year lawsuit brought by the CSIRO on a group of technology companies, in which the organisation was seeking royalties for wi-fi technology that is used extensively on laptops and computers worldwide.

CSIRO spokesman Huw Morgan declined to elaborate on the details of the settlement, saying: "CSIRO has reached a settlement with HP in relation to wireless technology."

Since the Australian science agency received a patent for its IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi products in January 1996, the technology has been adopted as an industry standard by most notebooks and desktop computers around the world.

CSIRO started legal action against a group of technology companies in 2005, arguing that its patent was being infringed upon and it should "receive royalties from every producer of WLAN products worldwide."

If CSIRO is successful in being granted royalty rights for the technology, billions of dollars could be headed its way because of the widespread use of the wireless standard.

In 2007 CSIRO had some success when a Texas District Court imposed a permanent injunction on Buffalo Technologies importing, manufacturing, selling or using the wireless technology.

The decision was appealed last year and the injunction has been lifted while the patent issue is clarified.

CSIRO notches up more patent wins

By News Online's Nic MacBean

Posted 28 minutes ago

The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO) has had some more wins in an ongoing legal battle over the use of patented Wi-Fi technology.

The government agency has taken on some of the giants of the computing world for what it says is the unauthorised use of its wireless technology.

Since the CSIRO patented the technology in 1996 most computers and laptops in the world have adopted it as an industry standard but there has been no flow of royalties.

It is currently in an American court in Texas, and slowly but surely a stream of companies are opting for confidential settlements.

Three weeks after Hewlett-Packard reached an agreement with the CSIRO, a spokesman has confirmed that Intel, Dell, Fujitsu, Microsoft and Asus have followed suit.

Discussions are continuing with a range of other companies, including Nintendo and Netgear. The details of the settlements are confidential, in accordance with US laws on evidence.

But law experts say the settlements could be a windfall for the CSIRO, because of the scale of the unauthorised use of the wireless technology.

Patent lawyer Neil Shoot says it is clear the CSIRO has a strong case.

"It's difficult to say how much it could end up costing these companies, but as you can imagine it could be quite a large amount if damages get backdated to the unlawful use of the patent," he said.

Patent proceeds to fund new CSIRO research

By News Online's Nic MacBean

Posted 2 hours 47 minutes ago 
Updated 2 hours 41 minutes ago

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Industry standard: the CSIRO's wireless technology is used in computers worldwide. (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)

• Related Story: CSIRO notches up more patent wins

The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO) will use the money won from a Wi-Fi technology patent battle to fund further research.

Legal action in the United States between the CSIRO and a number of global computing giants came to an end today, with the last of 14 companies opting for confidential settlements with the scientific agency.

The issue at the heart of the dispute was the unauthorised use of patented wireless network technology, which the CSIRO patented in 1996, by some of the biggest names in the technology industry including Microsoft, Nintendo and Hewlett Packard.

Despite the patent, the companies proceeded to adopt the technology as industry standard on most computers and laptops, with no royalties flowing onto the CSIRO.

The CSIRO won a case in the US Federal Court against Japanese Buffalo Technologies in June 2007, and on the back of that win it decided to pursue more companies in defence of its patent.

Companies including Apple and Intel launched counter-cases in an attempt to invalidate the patent, meaning Australia's premier scientific agency has been embroiled in four separate cases against the companies.

But there has been a steady stream of confidential settlements over the past few weeks.

While the details of the settlements remain confidential, they represent a level of recognition by the companies that the CSIRO owns the intellectual property on the wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

It is unclear how much money has flowed to the CSIRO, but experts say the technology would be worth billions of dollars if royalties were paid on an ongoing basis.

In recognition of their potential liability if this were to occur, all 14 companies chose to settle with the CSIRO, which said it was pleased with the outcome.

"The WLAN technology was invented by an Australia team of scientists and so this has been an important activity for CSIRO," chief executive Megan Clark said.

"CSIRO will continue to defend intellectual property developed from research undertaken on behalf of the Australian taxpayer."

The windfall from the 14 settlements is expected to give a significant boost to the agency's coffers.

"The commercial proceeds from CSIRO's licensing programs are invested into further research that will be for the benefit of Australia," Dr Clark said.

The patent was for IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi products, and the settlements were from Hewlett Packard, Intel, Dell, Toshiba, Asus, Netgear, D-Link, Belkin, SMC, Accton, 3-Com, Buffalo, Microsoft and Nintendo.