Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

24 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Hm by Tarlus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, as long as I can continue to surf the internet while on the john, I really don't care who owns the wireless patent.

    --
    /* No Comment */
  2. 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.
    1. Re:Who to the what, now? by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...agency of the Australian Government

      Goodness. A dingo ate my wifi!

      Yes, I learned everything I know about Australia from Slashdot, Fosters commercials,
      and Crocodile Dundee movies.

  3. Re:patents are 10 years long by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Informative

    20. Patents are 20 years long.

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  4. Re:sucks to be them... by lightyear4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    why would those utilizing the technology be sued? surely the manufacturers of such equipment are those most directly affected?

  5. 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
  6. CSIRO Patents are a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I really think that having the CSIRO earning money for every WLAN access point is a reason why the patent system is a Good Thing (tm). Not greedy corporations making money, just an honest government research institute getting credit for their work.

    Just look at their research on the new Air Guitar for example

    1. Re:CSIRO Patents are a good thing by Overzeetop · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I want my tax dollars paid back, with interest, then. If the government supported any part of the research, it only follows that the government funders (aka taxpyers) should reap the rewards.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    2. Re:CSIRO Patents are a good thing by MEGAMAID · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, we'd get them back indirectly. The CSIRO has stated in their press release that they plan to use any money from royalty payments to fund further research. This means that we, the taxpayers, don't have to.

      --

      Waking Up - There must be a better way to start the day.
  7. Re:sucks to be them... by AssCork · · Score: 5, Funny

    San Fran CISCO!

    Thanks - I'll be here all night.

    --
    The following replies are posted by unwashed nerds.
  8. Re:Say What? by Tmack · · Score: 3, Informative
    How can they collect royalties from Buffalo for every wireless device sold in the world? Does buffalo technology own the patent for that? Wouldn't that mean that companies like Netgear blah blah blah

    RTFA... to answer all your questions, YES. They (CSIRO) own the patent, which evidently covers technology that lead to the standard and would mean royalties from most wireless (802.11a/g) devices worldwide, and they are going after the others (Netgear was specifically mentioned) as well...seriously, RTFA!

    tm

    --
    Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
  9. If the CSIRO had any balls.. by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    they would use this finding to stop the manufacture of all infringing devices in the world, except the ones that are made in Australia. Seeing as the charter of the CSIRO is to produce research which exclusively benefits Australian business, that's what they should be doing.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:If the CSIRO had any balls.. by Petra_von_Kant · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As an ex-CSIRO scientist from the early 1990's who personally developed several diagnostic assays for chlamydia trachomatis (look it up) which were commissioned by a certain large Swedish pharmaceutical company, I can confidently say, that the work done wasn't solely for the benefit of Australian companies.

      For some years, the CSIRO has had a policy of being a hired gun, so to speak, for anyone prepared to hand over the readies, and further, applies pressure to the various divisions, to be self-funding to a certain degree (in my particular group, it was 30% but that was 12 years ago now).

      The current Australian goverment, is, unfortunately, a conservative one, and is only too happy to put pressure on the CSIRO and other research institutes to get their funding from elsewhere, rather than from the public purse (well, gives them more money to piss up against the wall for defence et cetera).

      10 years, however, is about par for the course with anything at the CSIRO, as it is now top heavy with administrators whose sole aim in life is to ensure that their arses are protected. The truly great and good scientists from there have all buggered orf or taken their generous redundany pay and retired. Me? I was headhunted over 10 years ago and I don't really miss it the way it is now.

      Rather I yearn for the days before some idiot decided that bean counters or people with an MBA should be in charge, where you didn't have to attend 5 meetings a day or spend time worrying about your ever shrinking contract and were allowed to get on with the genuine science.

      OK, spleen vented ..........

  10. 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 RingDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Thanks for the links. My fear initially was that this was just another craptastic submarine patent.

      But here's a question. 802.11a has been a standard a long time, in development long before its acceptance. Why is it that the patents that apply to the technology that this standard is based off just NOW coming to light? Why were patent/royalty issue not brought up in 1999 or earlier?

      It seems kind of shady to me to wait until after the standard was released (1999), after wide spread US adoption (2001), after world wide adoption (2003), until years later when the technology is so prolific that companies that have based their entire success on the technologies covered by the patents have no option to change to a non-infringing technology. Or has this been a 7+ year long court case?

      -Rick

      --
      "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
    2. Re:Looks like a legit patent.... by sk0pe · · Score: 3, Informative

      Uhh, yeah. You're ignoring the fact that this suit is a COUNTER-suit. They're suing Buffalo to prevent the patent being rule invalid. Sounds like CSIRO were happy to continue as things were until the manufacturers decided to apply for an invalidation of the patent.

      --
      Tempus fugit sub anesthesia.
    3. 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!
  11. Patent and standards by microbee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A technology will have a very hard time being standardized if someone holds the patent. However, in this case and others, nobody realized the patent issue when it was being pushed as a standard. Many years later, when everyone is using it, the patent holder comes out and claims the ownership and starts to collect payments. It's too late to correct the mistake. If the patent holder had been saying so from the beginning, it would not have had a chance to grow such a market value.

    I think there should be some laws to restrict such a practice.

    1. Re:Patent and standards by Shanep · · Score: 3, Informative

      A technology will have a very hard time being standardized if someone holds the patent. However, in this case and others, nobody realized the patent issue when it was being pushed as a standard. Many years later, when everyone is using it, the patent holder comes out and claims the ownership and starts to collect payments. It's too late to correct the mistake. If the patent holder had been saying so from the beginning, it would not have had a chance to grow such a market value.

      I think there should be some laws to restrict such a practice.

      That is not what happened in this case. The patent holder was "holding back" in this case because they had no option. It was an Australian patent against a US corporation. Now that the FTA is in force, this has opened the opportunity not only for the Australian patent holder to enforce their patent in the US, but also for the US corporation to challenge the Australian patent in court. Guess what? The greedy US corportation challenged the CSIRO, an honorable scientific research entity, in court to have their patent invalidated. So naturally, as is required to retain a patent, the CSIRO had to defend their patent to keep it.

      The CSIRO are good people. They do lots of good things for the good of not just Australia, but the World.

      This court case was brought against them, the CSIRO, in an attempt to invalidate their rightful patent. If you do not defend your patent, you lose it.

      So here we have a case where a money motivated corporation is trying to stomp on a scientific research entity (which only strives to further the state of the art), so that the corportation can make more money. Thankfully the scientific research entity came out on top.

      There is patent abuse in this story, but it most certainly is NOT from the CSIRO. Thankfully that abuse failed.

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
  12. Hey! That's mine. by mhokie · · Score: 3, Funny

    '""The CSIRO has won...'
    Incorrectly starting quotes with two (2) quotation marks has been patented by me! I'd like my $0.15 in royalties please.

  13. Re:patents are 10 years long by bluephone · · Score: 3, Informative

    Even more specifically, it's 20 years from the date of application or 17 years from teh date of issue, whichever is longer. This helps prevent entities form being shorted if it takes ten years to work through the patent system before being granted.

    --
    jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
  14. Tax relief for Australians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Basically all countries of the world will be assisting Australians pay their taxation bill and that works for me.

    Capitalism at its best. Thank you all very much...

    A Happy Aussie

  15. Re:patents are 10 years long by OldAndSlow · · Score: 3, Informative

    An Aussie patent only applies in Aussieland, not in the US. Ergo, a ruling in US court means they have a US patent.

  16. Maybe not just coming to light now by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to CSIRO they have been selling licences to companies it's just an issue now because it's now that this "Buffalo Technology" company has decided it doesn't want to pay.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park