CSIRO's 802.11 patent hopes buoyed by change of court

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 14:27

Business IT - Technology

The CSIRO says its chances of victory in its battle to secure licence fees from patents covering 802.11a/g wireless technologies have been improved by a Federal Court decision to have the case heard by a court in Texas.

In February, 2005, CSIRO filed suit against Buffalo Technology, a Japanese manufacturer, and Buffalo USA, its Austin, Texas-based subsidiary alleging that Buffalo's 802.11a and 802.11g wireless devices infringed CSIRO's US Patent 5,487,069 (the '069 patent).

According to the CSIRO, other major IT companies - Intel, Dell, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Netgear - recognised that a victory by CSIRO in the Buffalo case could have broad implications for the wireless industry as a whole and sued CSIRO in May, 2005 in the Federal District Court in San Francisco seeking a declaratory judgment that the '069 patent was invalid and not infringed.

On November 14, 2006, before a decision had been reached in the California case, the Texas court found CSIRO's patents to be valid and infringed by Buffalo. The California court has now agreed with CSIRO that the Eastern District of Texas is the proper venue to decide on the case brought by Intel et al, because the Texas court is already familiar with the case and has ruled on the key issues.

According to CSIRO, the Texas court's ruling in the Buffalo case will apply to all 802.11a and g wireless devices. The amount of patent damages in the Buffalo case, based on a "reasonable royalty," will likely be decided early next yea, and if applied to all other manufacturers of 802.11a/g devices would generate enormous revenues for CSIRO.