csiro

Court lifts injunction, Buffalo to sell WiFi gear in US

Lynnette Luna — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:44:33 -0500

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

Related articles:
Court decision could hurt WiFi industry
CSIRO ready for WiFi patent fight

Buffalo Technology halts 802.11a/g sales in U.S.

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:59:57 -0400

WiFi vendor Buffalo Technology told its customers that it has been enjoined as of Oct. 1 from selling 802.11a and g equipment in the U.S. as a result of patent litigation brought on by Australian technology research agency CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization). CSIRO holds a broad patent for WLAN technology.

The CSIRO was granted its patent (#5487069) more than 10 years ago but turned to sue Buffalo Technology for patent infringement in 2005. In June, a Texas court issued the injunction against Buffalo after it lost the patent lawsuit last November. Buffalo is appealing.

All WiFi players are fighting CSIRO's patent claims. CSIRO's lawsuits are against the entire wireless LAN industry and could affect the supply of wireless LAN products by any manufacturer, not just Buffalo. According to Buffalo's web site: "The entire industry is resisting CSIRO's attempts to enjoin the sale of wireless LAN products. Recently, Microsoft, 3COM Corporation, SMC Networks, Accton Technology Corporation, Intel, Atheros Communications, Belkin International, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel Networks, Nvidia Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Yahoo, Nokia, and the Consumer Electronics Association filed briefs in support of Buffalo's position that injunctive relief is inappropriate in this case."

Buffalo can sell existing inventories and has permission to replace products under warranty. Certainly the WiFi industry wants to fight this to avoid adding costs to WiFi equipment. One of the reasons WiFi has proliferated is because of how cheap equipment is.

When it comes to 802.11n, the CSIRO recently said it won't give the IEEE its assurance that it will refrain from suing companies that release next-generation WiFi equipment based on the draft of that standard.

To read more about Buffalo's injunction:
- take a look at this report from Wi-Fi Net News
- read Buffalo's web site

CSIRO ready for WiFi patent fight

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:59:57 -0400

The Australian government's research body CSIRO, which claims to hold critical WiFi patents, won't give the IEEE its assurance that it will refrain from suing companies that release next-generation WiFi equipment based on the draft 802.11n standard.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) wrote to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) asking the research group to promise it won't sue over the release of pre-802.11n equipment. Denis Redfern, vice president of licensing with CSIRO, said the research body is "happy to confirm that CSIRO continues to be willing to license these patents on a worldwide basis to manufacturers of notebook computers, access points and other wireless-enabled products that would otherwise infringe the patents." Redfern added that reaching licensing agreements have "proved not to be possible" to date, as licensing terms CSIRO has made to manufacturers have been rejected.

CSIRO already has won a patent lawsuit against Buffalo Technology. Dell, Intel, Microsoft, HP and Netgear last year filed suit to overturn CSIRO's patents.

What's at stake? Steep licensing fees to CSIRO from makers of a whole host of WiFi products. Although some industry experts say the risk is overblown.

For more about CSIRO's WiFi patents:
- read this article from ZDNet

Court decision could hurt WiFi industry

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:59:57 -0400

A federal court decision earlier this month could hurt the entire WiFi industry. The Eastern District Court of Texas has issued an injunction against WiFi equipment vendor Buffalo Technology in a patent dispute with the Australian science agency known as CSIRO, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. The court found that Buffalo violated CSIRO's 1996 patent pertaining to 802.11a/g technology and must stop selling WLAN products until it makes a licensing agreement with CSIRO.

Lawyers say the court's decision could result in steep licensing fees to CSIRO from makers of a whole host of WiFi products.

To read more about the court's decision:
- check out this article from InformationWeek

Bluetooth vendors face major patent battle

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:01:37 -0500

What was it that Yogi Berra said about "deja vu all over again?" Quite a few WiFi vendors are looking forward with anxiety and more than a bit of gloom to the royalties bill they may soon receive from Australian research organization CSIRO: The Aussie tech-savvy outfit holds hundreds of patents, and some of them directly relate to OFDM technology. The organization is on the way to winning a major case against Buffalo Technology in a Texas Court, and a few weeks ago a San Francisco judge, in a move which could bolster the CSIRO case, moved to the Texas judge for adjudication a slew of counter suits launched against the Australians by a group of U.S. tech giants.

Now, it appears, it is the turn of Bluetooth vendors to become anxious and gloomy. The University of Washington's patent-licensing unit (called the Washington Research Foundation, or WRF) has sued four electronics vendors--Nokia, Samsung, Matsushita and Panasonic of North America--which incorporate Bluetooth chips made by CSR into their products. The WRF holds patents created by an undergraduate at the school, and the Huskies claim that CSR chips infringe on these patents. Note that WRF has a licensing agreement with Broadcom, one of CSR's competitors.

The Seattle Times reports that the patents were developed in the mid-1990s, but that one of them was not filed until 2003, and was granted only in October 2006. The Bluetooth SIG's members agreed to cross-license technology, but WRF is outside that process.

For more on the Bluetooth patent clash:
- see Nancy Gohring's Techworld report
- Tricia Duryee's Seattle Times report
- this Forbes report

Aussies demo world's fastest wireless link

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:01:34 -0500

We wrote a few weeks ago about a landmark court ruling in the case of Australian research organization CSIRO against Buffalo Technology, in which the court said that CSIRO had a valid claim for patent rights involving OFDM technology used in 802.11a- and 802.11g-based WLANs. The legal skirmishes are not yet over, but the Aussies now stand a very good chance of collecting millions and millions of dollars in royalties from a slew of WiFi vendors.

The CSIRO ICT Center has thousands of patents to its name. Here is the latest report from this active down-under research center: Its researchers demonstrated what must be regarded as the world's fastest wireless link--more than six gigabits per second over a point-to-point wireless connection with the highest efficiency (2.4 bits/s/Hz). To appreciate this speed: The entire works of Shakespeare could be transmitted over this 6 Gbps link in under seven thousandths of a second; a full DVD movie would take just over six seconds. The team demonstrated a transmission of 16 simultaneous streams of DVD quality video over a 250-meter link with no loss of quality or delays. Note that the demonstration, impressive as it is, only used one quarter of the capacity of the link.

Dr. Jay Guo, director of the Wireless Technologies Laboratory at CSIRO, said that this breakthrough is just a first stage toward direct connections of up to 12 gigabits per second. "The system is suitable for situations where a high speed link is needed, but it is too expensive or logistically difficult to lay fiber, such as in congested urban environments, and across valleys and rivers," he said. "The system is also ideal for creating networks to meet short term needs such as emergencies and large events."

The CSIRO system operates at 85 GHz in the millimeter-wave part of the electromagnetic spectrum (above 55 GHz).

For more on the fast wireless link:
-see CSIRO website

Also: See what FierceWireless said about this new technology.

CSIRO wins first round in WLAN patent war

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:01:39 -0400

This is not a case of David and Goliath, but a case of David and several Goliaths: In one corner is the Australian science agency CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research organization). In the other corner: Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Apple, and Netgear. Who would you put your money on? Don't reach for your wallet quite yet, as earlier this month Judge Leonard Davis of the US District Court for the eastern district of Texas issued a Markman opinion accepting terms of argument and definitions of the issues on hand which favor CSIRO. Yes, this is only the first round, but the Goliaths have been staggered and they will fight the remaining rounds with one arm tied behind their backs.

The six computer giants have been seeking to have a patent held by CSIRO revoked. In 1996 CSIRO developed technology to allow computers to be networked together wirelessly. Geoff Garrett, CSIRO's chief executive, says the system allows the speed of WLAN to be increased by a factor of five. The technology is now integrated in most laptop computers and manufacturers who do so pay CSIRO a license fee to use it.

This is a second legal skirmish for CSRIO. In February 2005 it launched legal action in the U.S. against Japanese company Buffalo Technology. Buffalo could not reach a license agreement with CSRIO, but went on to use the technology in its products anyway.

CSRIO received the U.S. patent on the WLAN technology in 1996 and has spent million since then fighting for royalties for it. Its battle became even more urgent in 2004 after the Australian government had cut its funding for the organization.

Garrett said CSRIO will fight to the end: "If CSIRO doesn't do it, we in Australia are going to get rolled."

For more on CSIRO case:
- see this report from The Australian