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.