News in Science

CSIRO settles on wireless patent

Australia's government-funded science organisation has settled its legal battle over the use of its patented Wi-Fi technology, which will be used to fund further research, says its chief executive.

Legal action in the United States between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and a number of global computing giants came to an end yesterday, with the last of 14 companies opting for confidential settlements with the scientific agency.

The issue at the heart of the dispute was the unauthorised use of patented wireless network technology, which the CSIRO patented in 1996, by some of the biggest names in the technology industry including Microsoft, Nintendo and Hewlett Packard.

Despite the patent, the companies proceeded to adopt the technology as industry standard on most computers and laptops, with no royalties flowing onto the CSIRO.

The CSIRO won a case in the US Federal Court against Japanese Buffalo Technologies in June 2007, and on the back of that win it decided to pursue more companies in defence of its patent.

Companies including Apple and Intel launched counter-cases in an attempt to invalidate the patent, meaning Australia's premier scientific agency has been embroiled in four separate cases against the companies.

But there has been a steady stream of confidential settlements over the past few weeks.

While the details of the settlements remain confidential, they represent a level of recognition by the companies that the CSIRO owns the intellectual property on the wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

Billions in royalties

It is unclear how much money has flowed to the CSIRO, but experts say the technology would be worth billions of dollars if royalties were paid on an ongoing basis.

In recognition of their potential liability if this were to occur, all 14 companies chose to settle with the CSIRO, which said it was pleased with the outcome.

"The WLAN technology was invented by an Australia team of scientists and so this has been an important activity for CSIRO," sasy CSIRO chief executive Megan Clark.

"CSIRO will continue to defend intellectual property developed from research undertaken on behalf of the Australian taxpayer."

The windfall from the 14 settlements is expected to give a significant boost to the agency's coffers.

"The commercial proceeds from CSIRO's licensing programs are invested into further research that will be for the benefit of Australia," says Clark.

The patent was for IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi products, and the settlements were from Hewlett Packard, Intel, Dell, Toshiba, Asus, Netgear, D-Link, Belkin, SMC, Accton, 3-Com, Buffalo, Microsoft and Nintendo.