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Wi-LAN Charges Apple, 21 Others with Wi-Fi Patent Infringement
by , 1:05 PM EDT, November 2nd, 2007
Wi-LAN, an Ottawa, Canada company, has initiated litigation against Apple and 21 others companies for patent infringement related to "U.S. patent nos. 5,282,222, RE37,802 and 5,956,323 by making and/or selling various products, including wireless routers, modems and personal notebook computers that use [the technology]. These patents are related to Wi-Fi and to power consumption in DSL products," according to the company on Thursday.
Other notable companies involved in the lawsuit include Belkin, Broadcom, D-Link, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Netgear, Sony and Toshiba.
"Wi-LAN has successfully negotiated patent licensing deals with a number of companies covering a broad range of patent families and technologies," said Jim Skippen, President and CEO. "While we prefer to resolve patent infringement through business discussions, we have consistently maintained that litigation was always a possibility when negotiations do not result in a license within a reasonable time."
Wi-LAN is a company that focuses exclusively on licensing its intellectual property in the communications and consumer electronics markets.
According to Reuters on Thursday, Wi-LAN said it has struck a preliminary agreement with Fujitsu.
Observer Comments
I get really tired of copy right firms that only try to blackmail other firms into license deals. This seems like another one of those.
I emailed the company the following
I recently read about the litigation you have initiated on the WiFi standard and wondered if you can tell me why it is in texas, as you are a Canadian Company and to the best of my knowledge these are not from that jurisdiction, nor even your law firm.
Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:01 pm Subject: Re: Shopping for a settlement
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
I get really tired of copy right firms that only try to blackmail other firms into license deals. This seems like another one of those.
I emailed the company the following
I recently read about the litigation you have initiated on the WiFi standard and wondered if you can tell me why it is in texas, as you are a Canadian Company and to the best of my knowledge these are not from that jurisdiction, nor even your law firm.
The reason it was filed in Texas is probably that Texas courts are known to take an expansive view of patents and copyrights. If I understand correctly (I'm not an attorney), the plaintiff has to show that the companies being sued do business in the court's jurisdiction. That should be easy.
Guys, Nobody is a bigger Apple fan than me, or more annoyed than me with bottom-feeding, patent-scavenging jerks that have never sold a product or contributed anything trying to enforce crap patents that should never have been granted in the first place, but I don't think that's the case this time.
I've been a money-losing Wi-Lan shareholder for many years. (Almost as long as I've been an APPL investor.)
Wi-Lan has been involved with spread spectrum communication since 1992, did pioneering work in OFDM wireless broadband and patented its work many years ago. They were reasonably successful selling their own hardware, but couldn't compete as a manufacturer against against larger companies with much larger resources and therefore decided to reorg and make a living by charging a reasonable fee for their IP. Since the reorg, they have aquired a number of related patents to bolster their portfolio.
In 1999 Wi-Lan and Philips Semiconductor jointly demonstrated wireless Firewire.
http://tinyurl.com/yvygss
A number of very large companies have agreements with Wi-Lan, including Cisco, Nokia, Futitsu and Philips Semi.
If you want to learn more, see www.wi-lan.com.
Do some more research on Wi-Lan, before becoming a licensing company they manufactured and developed the technologies. They have every right to go after infrigers when they were part of the technology foundation. They have since shed the manufacturing aspect and focus on the IP they have developed and since began to purchase, but they have once again started hiring an R&D team to develope future technolgy and patents. Not everything is black and white.
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