patent: September 2007 Archives
The Register reports that the 802.11n wireless standard is at risk because the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) hasn't, and apparently won't, guarantee not to sue anyone who implements the standard.
The CSIRO has previously been very active in demanding licensing fees from companies implementing the 802.11a and 802.11g wireless standards. So much so, that Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Netgear joined forces to try and invalidate the patents. I don't know enough about the patent and the technology in issue to know whether this is something that the CSIRO genuinely invented, or whether some avaricious patent attorneys decided that part of the 802.11a/g standards overlapped with a very broad patent. Certainly the latter is immensely popular in the US in recent times - patent trolling has become big business.
I won't start laying into the state of the US patent system, because I'd be here all night, and I need to go infringe a patent with Jinx and Poppy.
The CSIRO has previously been very active in demanding licensing fees from companies implementing the 802.11a and 802.11g wireless standards. So much so, that Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Netgear joined forces to try and invalidate the patents. I don't know enough about the patent and the technology in issue to know whether this is something that the CSIRO genuinely invented, or whether some avaricious patent attorneys decided that part of the 802.11a/g standards overlapped with a very broad patent. Certainly the latter is immensely popular in the US in recent times - patent trolling has become big business.
I won't start laying into the state of the US patent system, because I'd be here all night, and I need to go infringe a patent with Jinx and Poppy.
