Court lifts injunction, Buffalo to sell WiFi gear in US

WiFi equipment vendor Buffalo Technology announced a federal judge has stayed a permanent injunction enacted in the summer of 2007 barring the vendor from selling WiFi products. The Eastern District Court of Texas issued the injunction in a patent dispute with the Australian science agency known as CSIRO, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. The court found Buffalo violated CSIRO's 1996 patent pertaining to 802.11a/g technology and must stop selling WLAN products until it made a licensing agreement with CSIRO.

In September, the federal circuit raised the issue of whether CSIRO's patent is valid and remanded the case back to the district court. The order staying the permanent injunction confirms Buffalo is free to sell IEEE 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n compliant products in the U.S., Buffalo said.

Although Buffalo believes the appellate court implicitly vacated the injunction when it questioned the validity of CSIRO's patent, Buffalo took the additional step of asking the trial court to stay the injunction to the extent it was still in force. Buffalo now expects the trial court will schedule a trial on whether CSIRO's asserted patent claims are invalid.

For more:
- read this release [1]

Related articles:
Court decision [2] could hurt WiFi industry
CSIRO ready [3] for WiFi patent fight