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Australian WiFi Inventors Win US Legal Battle

Posted by samzenpus on from the piece-of-the-pie dept.

First time accepted submitter Kangburra writes "Australian government science body CSIRO said Sunday it had won a multi-million-dollar legal settlement in the United States to license its patented technology that underpins the WiFi platform worldwide. Scientists from the agency invented the wireless local area network (WLAN) technology that is the basis of the WiFi signal employed by computers, smartphones and other Internet-ready devices around the world."

5 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Who picks these "standards" anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Can we get future standards that *DON'T* have a troll waiting to collect $$$? I thought any standard promoted by IEEE and like organizations had to be patent free. Wouldn't that be the best solution for everybody?

    1. Re:Who picks these "standards" anyway? by black3d · · Score: 4, Interesting

      PS. CSIRO isn't a "troll". It's the research organization which actually invented this tech, and have been trying to license it for the last decade. They've reached agreements with over 30 major manufacturers for prior licensing. This is about as far from "patent troll" as you can get. Real patent trolls - compaines who acquire patents and sit on them for years waiting for tech to be adopted so they can then sue everyone, deserve your disdain. CSIRO doesn't.

      The only reason it's taken so long to get success for its patents is because it's in Australia - many US companies simply ignore patents from international companies because the cost of suing someone in the US is generally too high if you're overseas. US companies willfully ignore thousands of original invention patents originating internationally. Another great example is Franmara's "Champagne Xpress". It's a champagne bottle opener which was invented by a New Zealander, Bryce Stewart. It was patented in the US in 2003. Franmara CEO Frank Chiorazzi asked for a sample of the invention, then offered Bryce $2500 to license it. The offer was flatly refused - nevertheless, Franmara began manufacturing and selling them in the US. They're now popularly used in restaurants nationwide. The original inventor doesn't get see a cent of the procedes from his invention or patent, and it's very difficult for a NZer to procede with a lawsuit against a major US company, despite obvious patent theft.

      Realise, patent theft does occur, and trolls are not always the victims. In both cases above, the original inventors are, still holders of their original patents.

      --
      "The true measure of a person is how they act when they know they won't get caught." - DSRilk
    2. Re:Who picks these "standards" anyway? by victorhooi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      heya,

      Well, in a bit of luck for the "little guy", it seems there may be good news for the champagne cork opener guy:

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6667488/Kiwi-inventor-wins-champagne-patent-battle
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10795728

      If what's written in those articles is true, it sounds like the American companies were real dicks - asking for a sample to "evaluate", offering him a paltry $2500 for unlimited use, then when they got turned down going to find his Chinese manufacturer, and attempting to steal his product.

      Cheers,
      Victor

    3. Re:Who picks these "standards" anyway? by DeSigna · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Their only income from their inventions comes from suing other people or licensing fees extorted by threatening to sue.

      No, they aren't trolls. I'll concur that what you've described is one of the characteristics. Another is that patent trolling companies don't do much, if any, research of their own: they buy patents from other companies, and use them to extort payments.

      The CSIRO is a research organisation. They've done some incredibly valuable work in a great many fields; their attitude is one of licensing their R&D to commercial companies for commercialisation, rather than doing it themselves. It's a system that has worked very well for over eighty years. The fact that they don't manufacture things themselves does not, in and of itself, make them a patent troll.

      In addition, it is worth noting (from the Annual Report) that only ~2% of CSIRO funding comes from intellectual property licensing. Roughly 60% is from the Federal Government and 34% from public, private and foreign co-investments and joint research projects.

      It is satisfying to see this finally come to an end; I was recently trying to find what had come of this court case without much luck. I was still a teenager back in the early 2000s when I heard of the CSIRO starting to seek licensing of their radio patents.

  2. That's not a Lawsuit..... by ihaveamo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wifi? That's nothing!. For REAL world-changing Aussie IT, look no further than Product Activation! ,
    which won a massive $388 million payout (Mostly from from Microsoft). And then lost. And then won again, and then lost again, and then a sorta 25% win or something..

    I mean, come on!. Imagine life WITHOUT product activation. Microsoft products just wouldn't "feel" the same. It's the core technology of their whole solution!