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CSIRO Wireless Patent Reaffirmed In US Court

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-was-here-first-nyah-nyah dept.

An anonymous reader writes ""The CSIRO has won a landmark US legal battle against Buffalo Technology, under which it could receive royalties from every producer of wireless local area network (WLAN) products worldwide." From the article: "The patent, granted to CSIRO in 1996, encompasses elements of the 802.11a/g wireless technology that is now an industry standard. It stems from a system developed by CSIRO in the early '90s, 'to exchange large amounts of information wirelessly at high speed, within environments such as offices and homes,' said a CSIRO spokeswoman."

4 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Who to the what, now? by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Informative
    Something that might have been helpful to include in the story submission:
    *Note for International media: CSIRO is the national research agency of the Australian Government. It undertakes scientific research for the purpose of assisting Australian industry, furthering the interests of the Australian community and contributing to the achievement of national objectives.

    (Source: a previous press release about the case)
    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  2. Re:Say What? by StArSkY · · Score: 4, Informative

    it's called precedent. By winning this one, every other company will pay rather than fight, because the judges will refer to the buffalo case.

    --
    lounge around on the blue couch
  3. Looks like a legit patent.... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5487069.html
    http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5487069.pdf

    Its more or less a means of generating multi pathed radio signals with CRC checking from packet data. So long as they're not greedy with the royalties, more power to em.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Looks like a legit patent.... by Kyro · · Score: 4, Informative

      From what I can remember (no source sorry) the reason it took so long was because until the US-Australia FTA was signed 2 years ago or whatever, there was no reason for Intel/Buffalo etc to be worried about getting sued.

      When the FTA was signed, they realised they could get sued so they went to court to invalidate the patent and CSIRO counter-claimed.

      Something along those grounds anyway.

      --
      save the GNUs!