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Wireless LAN patent ruling could be ominous for WLAN vendors

November 17, 2006

In a development that is somewhere between annoying and ominous, the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO), has won a patent infringement judgment against Wireless Local Area Network hardware vendor Buffalo Technology.

The case, relevant to U.S. Patent 5487069, was brought by CSIRO because the body felt that Buffalo had infringed on a system it had developed in the ealry 1990s that would enable wireless data interchange at high speed in offices and homes.

The U.S. Federal Court for the Eastern Distrct of Texas granted summary judgment on Wednesday. No royalty rate has yet been stipulated, but is supposed to be on the way.

The bigger picture is that if this ruling stands, then pretty much every other WLAN vendor- at least in the U.S.- would have to pay royalties to CSIRO. That could get giants like Cisco involved.

Obviously we are looking at an appeal here. We'll stay on top of this one.




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