Buffalo Enjoined from Selling Wi-Fi Gear in Patent Suit Injunction from June 07

This may be dated but it's the first I've seen on the subject

http://www.wifinetnews.com/archives/007720.html


June 20, 2007

Buffalo Enjoined from Selling Wi-Fi Gear in Patent Suit Injunction
By Glenn Fleishman

A judge in Texas may have overstepped his limits: The East Texas court that
found Buffalo Technologies in violation of a patent held by Australian
technology agency CSIRO is well known by venue shoppers as a place to get a
favorable hearing on any technology patent. CSIRO asked for Buffalo to be
prevented from selling any equipment with Wi-Fi in it. The judge agreed and
issued an injunction June 15. Buffalo was found in violation of the patent
last November.
Now, this is sort of odd because CSIRO’s lawyers state in several reports
today that they didn’t expect the judge to go along in light of the Supreme
Court decision—one of several recent ones that limit patent protection and
patentability—that states pretty bluntly that injunctions in patent cases
shouldn’t be issued even when a patentholder has had their claims upheld.
The exception is if the patentholder is competing in the marketplace with
the company that was found to violate their patents. That’s not the case
here, despite CSIRO arguments.
The Supreme Court’s decision should prevent patentholders from using the
threat of an injunction as a tool for settlement. The Research in Motion
(Blackberry) settlement would likely not have been so large or happened in
such a way after the highest court’s ruling.
There’s a four-part test in the S.C. ruling, and clearly none apply to
CSIRO. I expect the injunction to be quickly vacated by a higher court.
(Update: Two commenters point out that I’m interpreted the Court’s decision
incorrectly. One notes that the decision specifically exempts research
organizations from having to have commercially exploited their product. That
stands in contrast to patent trolls that purchase patents for the sole
purpose of extracting fees.)
Interesting fact in the Canberra Times article on the topic, which frankly
crows about CSIRO’s victory: Cisco already pays a royalty to CSIRO, and is
thus unaffected, because of an agreement as part of their acquisition of
Radiata, a venture based Down Under.

Next generation Wi-Fi mired in patent fears
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/21/802_11n_patent_threat/>
Friday 21st September 2007 20:07 GMT

The IEEE working group developing the 802.11n Wi-Fi is holding urgent
meetings this week to discuss a significant threat to the standard
from patents held by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO). Despite requests from the IEEE, CSIRO
has failed to promise not to sue anyone for infringement.

The next generation Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, has been under
development for years, and delayed many times. But delays may be of
little importance: the realisation that CSIRO holds essential
patents, and has failed to provide a Letter of Assurance as required
by the IEEE, could prevent the standard ever being finalised.

Letters of Assurance are requested from all parties holding patents
which may be applicable to any IEEE standard. Basically they state
that the patent owner won't sue anyone for implementing the standard.
A request for such a letter was sent to CSIRO, but according to an
internal IEEE memo seen by El Reg, no response has been received.

This means that anyone who implements, or is implementing, 802.11n is
at risk of being sued by CSIRO, and that the standard is very
unlikely to be approved.

[MORE]

US tech industry backs Buffalo in Wi-Fi patent spat
<http://www.theregister.com/2007/10/30/wlan_patent/>
Tuesday 30th October 2007 17:54 GMT

America's computing industry are lining up behind Buffalo Technology
to support its appeal against a US import ban of its 802.11a and
802.11g kit.

...

Microsoft, 3Com, SMC Networks and Accton Technology have now come out
in support of Buffalo, filing an amicus brief to back its appeal of
the injunction.

Intel, Dell, Atheros, Belkin, Consumer Electronics Association,
Hewlett-Packard, NETGEAR, Nortel Networks, Nvidia, Oracle, SAP, and
Yahoo! have filed a separate brief.

[MORE]

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Oct 31, 1:20 am, John Navas <spamfilt...@navasgroup.com> wrote:

Buffalo has all this on their first to visit web page.

On Oct 21, 2:23 pm, "NotMe" <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
> This may be dated but it's the first I've seen on the subject
>
> http://www.wifinetnews.com/archives/007720.html

It was released on October 1st. Its been pretty well covered in online
resources.