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U.S. Firms Take on Australia's CSIRO Over Patents

Posted by timothy on from the hey-we-want-those dept.

dingram17 writes "ABC News is reporting that six U.S. computer companies (Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Netgear) are taking legal action to try to break a U.S. patent that the CSIRO holds on wireless networking. The CSIRO has patents on OFDM technology, as used in 802.11a and 802.11g. It has been alleged that the CSIRO demands $4 per chipset for the use of this technology. It appears that the patent in question is U.S. Patent 5,487,069 'Wireless LAN.' From a quick look, this appears to be a wide ranging patent."

3 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by ElNonoMasa · · Score: 5, Funny

    Negotiations with CSIRO have come to a halt, and US troops are readying a full invas^H^H^H^H^H liberation attack on Australia.
    It has been discovered that the CSIRO technology could potentially assist enemies of the free world.
    The first stage of the attack, dubbed operation "Patent Freedom", could commence as soon as next week.

  2. Re:Wow.... by masklinn · · Score: 5, Funny
    So what was this major thing they invented?
    Software patents?
    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  3. Re:Wow.... by Frogbert · · Score: 4, Funny

    Whats that now? Your saying Australia isn't a state of America? Thats news to us Australians.