Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) confirmed (4-22-09) that the patent cases being heard in the Eastern District Court of Texas over CSIRO’s claim to inventing the technology behind Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) has concluded “successfully.” CSIRO claims to have patented core elements of the technology used in 802.11a and 802.11g wireless devices.
“CSIRO has negotiated settlement with each of the 14 companies involved in four concurrent litigation cases,” the agency said in a statement. “The commercial terms of the settlements with these companies will remain confidential.”
The CSIRO first applied for the US patent in 1993 and was awarded US patent number 5,487,069, entitled “Wireless LAN”, on 23 January 1996, and is for a “peer-to-peer wireless LAN” that can operate in the kind of multi-path environment created by radio echoes in typical office buildings. The patent describes three ways to get high speed transmission despite the hostile conditions in an office environment by transmitting over a relatively large number of parallel sub-channels within the available bandwidth so that each channel has a low bit rate; transmitting data in small packets with forward error correction (FEC); and using interleaving. These concepts are all featured in descriptions of the 802.11 physical layer. claims to have patented core elements of the technology used in 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n wireless devices.
CSIRO has previously said that its patent allowed speed increases up to a factor of five over previous WLANs by a factor of five, and that it had “offered licences on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to major suppliers as soon as they started selling devices which used the CSIRO technology.”
However, troubles began following Cisco Systems’ acquisition of Radiata from Macquarie University, which it had carried out for the purpose of commercializing CSIRO’s technology, which forms a key component of commonly used Wi-Fi products
The CSIRO filed patent infringement suits against 3Com, Accton, Asus, Belkin, D-Link, Fujitsu, Marvell (manufacturers of Apple‘s iPod), Nintendo, SMC and Toshiba. Several large technology vendors bit back – with Apple, Dell, HP, Intel, Microsoft and Netgear bringing cases against CSIRO in an attempt to have the patent invalidated.
In June 2007, the CSIRO won a case in the US Federal Court against Japanese manufacturer Buffalo Technologies, the basis of which the firm has used to demand royalties from a broader set of manufacturers that market Wi-Fi equipment.
As the case has played out in the last few weeks in and out of the Texas court, CSIRO struck individual deals with its adversary’s including; Dell, Fujitisu, HP, Intel, and Microsoft
HP was the first to settle on 04-02-09. CSIRO spokesperson Huw Morga said “CSIRO can confirm that a settlement has been reached with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) in relation to the wireless patent case,” Morgan continued in the Sydney Morning Herald, “There will be no further comment at this time due to confidentiality and on-going litigation.”
Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp. was dismissed by the Court with prejudice the claims and counterclaims between CSIRO and Fujitsu in the first court-approved settlement to emerge in the case on April 8 with terms of the settlement to remain confidential.
PC manufacturer Asus and Microsoft separately settled their lawsuits with the CSIRO on 04-14-09 terms of the settlement were not disclosed. CSIRO had accused Microsoft of wrongfully using its patent, while Microsoft was seeking a ruling of non-infringement for its networking wireless technology that includes an adapter for the Xbox video-game system.
Intel and Dell, also settled on 04-19-09 for undisclosed and confidential terms.
Accton Technology Corp., SMC Networks, Belkin Corp. and Belkin International, Inc., D-Link Systems, Inc., Netgear, Inc., Nintendo of America, Inc., Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., and 3Com Corp., announced on 4-20-09 that they had reached a settlement with CSIRO.
Cisco and its Linksys division aren’t on CSIRO’s list because Cisco agreed to patent terms when it acquired an Australian network authentication firm a few years ago. Apple dropped out in December 2006.
Dr. Alex Zelinsky, director of the CSIRO ICT Center confirmed that all of CSIRO opponents had chosen to settle the wireless case rather than go ahead with another trial. CSIRO deputy chief of operations Mike Whelan said that the terms of the settlement would remain strictly confidential. Dr Zelinsky speculated to ITNews , however, that the pay off could be worth upwards from $100 million up to a billion dollars and keep royalty payment flowing into the agency for up to a decade.
Timeline
- November 1993: CSIRO lodges US patent for the invention of a wireless LAN.
- January 1996: US patent 5,487,069 is issued to CSIRO.
- 1997: CSIRO and Macquarie University form Radiata, a company established for the purposes of commercializing the patent.
- 2001: Cisco Systems acquires Radiata for US$295 million.
- 2003: CSIRO engages in patent licensing discussions with several manufacturers, none of which agree to pay licensing fees.
- February 2005: CSIRO lodges a suit against Buffalo Technology for alleged patent violation in the Eastern District of Texas Court as a test case for its patent.
- May 2005: Two groups of industry heavyweights — including Dell and Intel, and Microsoft, HP and Netgear, lodge lawsuits against CSIRO seeking to overturn its patent.
- November 2006: CSIRO has its patent upheld by the Eastern District of Texas Court in its case against Buffalo Technology.
- September 2006: CSIRO counter-sues the industry parties attempting to overturn its patent, claiming these companies infringe on its patents.
- September 2007: CSIRO refuses to offer any amnesty to IEEE members that infringe on its patent.
- April 02, 2009 HP settles suit.
- April 13, 2009 Microsoft settles suit
- April 20, 2009 all other firms settle suit.
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If your installation includes Aruba, Meru or Trapeze, you can hope that CISRO goes back to developing Wearable Instrument Shirts or Airhockey Over a Distance, rather than squeezing more revenue for the tax payers of Australia out of this initial victory by going after all of the other Wi-Fi vendors. If upheld, CSIRO will collect what it has frequently described as a small royalty on all devices containing Wi-Fi.
The cases are:
- Intel Corp. v. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, 06cv551
- Microsoft Corp. v. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, 06cv549, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas (Tyler)
McDonald’s Corp. will soon start offering free wireless Internet access at its U.S. restaurants according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal. Starting in mid-January, McDonald’s will lift it’s $2.95 fee that it had charged customers for two hours of wireless Internet access, available at about 11,000 of its 14,000 domestic locations, McDonald’s USA Chief Information Officer David Grooms said in an interview.
The free access is a partnership with at&t Inc., which provides McDonald’s stores with wireless Internet. Free Wi-Fi is part of the fast-food chain’s transformation from its hamburger roots into a hang-out destination. Over at Mashable.com they speculate that McDonald’s plans to start selling frappes and smoothies mid-2010 as another part of the transformation.
hable.com writes that at&t purchased the Texas-based Wi-Fi hotspot operator Wayport in 2008 for $275 million in cash. The privately held company administered over 80,000 Wi-Fi hotspots all over the world for airports and large organizations like Wyndham, Four Seasons and McDonald’s restaurants nationwide. Stacey Higgenbotham over at GigaOm wrote in 2008 that at&t made this deal to off-load the mobile data network, “allows at&t to provide its customers with more places to do their bandwidth-sucking applications. Already, AT&T is willing to let iPhone and BlackBerry users access its Wi-Fi hotspots free at Starbucks. It also means AT&T can hold out a bit longer before deploying its 4G LTE network, which is designed for data.”
