…to transmit data simultaneously over different frequencies to maximise performance. IEEE standards including 802.11a, 802.11g and the proposed standard called 802.11n — which is expected to be ratified in 2007 —all use OFDM to transmit data wirelessly.
Buffalo Technology is not the only company fighting CSIRO's patent claims. In 2005, Dell, Intel, HP, Microsoft and Netgear sued CSIRO in federal court in San Francisco to invalidate the patent. The case is currently on hold because CSIRO requested that it be transferred to Texas, where Judge Davis has already done extensive research on the case.
A judge in San Francisco is expected to rule either this week or next on whether to move the case to Texas, said Furniss. The companies involved in suing CSIRO in San Francisco declined to comment for this story.
While CSIRO has won a significant battle in Texas, analysts say it still has a long road ahead before it will be able to get any of the equipment makers to pay a penny. Buffalo can appeal the court's decision, and the cases in which CSIRO is being sued in San Francisco to invalidate the patents must also decided.
"It takes a very long time to go through the legal process," said Craig Mathias, an analyst with Farpoint Group. "I don't see any immediate impact on the wireless industry as a result of this case. And to be honest, it's not even definitive that other judges or courts will uphold this patent and also find it valid."
CSIRO filed for its patent in 1992. The patent, number 5,487,069, was granted by the US Patent Office in 1996. Furniss said CSIRO disclosed the patent to the IEEE in 1997 when the standards body was developing a faster Wi-Fi standard, which in 1997 became known as 802.11a. The IEEE extended the technology again and, in 2003, ratified the 802.11g standard, which was based on the same fundamental principles as the 802.11a standard.
Furniss said that once the 802.11a and 802.11g standards were ratified, the IEEE sent a letter to CSIRO acknowledging that part of the technology used in the new standards was covered under CSIRO's patents. The IEEE asked CSIRO, as it does all companies that hold patents on technology used in a standard, if it wanted to license the technology to the industry for free or if it wanted to charge a reasonable fee for the license. Furniss said CSIRO indicated it wanted to charge a fee for the use of its technology.
"The original proposal was spearheaded by Lucent Technologies, and not anyone from CSIRO," he said. "There were choices of technologies to be used, and the IEEE adopted the use of this technology with knowledge of the patents. It's clearly a very valuable technology to the industry. And it took CSIRO seven to eight years to develop. But it's also clear the industry doesn't want to pay anything for using it."
He said that CSIRO has spent several years trying to get companies to license the technology, but so far it hasn't been successful. Cisco Systems pays a licence fee for the use of the technology, but only for technology that it bought through the acquisition of a high-speed wireless chipmaker called Radiata in 2000. Cisco's popular Linksys wireless routers, which use 802.11a and 802.11g technology, do not currently pay royalties to CSIRO, according to Furniss.
Furniss said he doesn't expect CSIRO to sue everyone using the 802.11a, 802.11g and eventually the 802.11n technology. In fact, CSIRO is focusing only on obtaining licensing fees from equipment makers, such as Netgear and Microsoft, and not chipmakers, such as Broadcom, Intel or Atheros. He claims the chips themselves don't infringe on the patents; it's only when the technology is used in a specific device.
