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.

The CSIRO brought the case against Buffalo before the US Federal Court of the Eastern District of Texas in February last year, claiming the manufacturer had failed to pay royalties on US patent 5487069.

The patent, granted to CSIRO in 1996, encompasses elements of the 802.11a/g wireless technology that is now an industry standard.