Is anyone safe from the wrath of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization? It’s looking unlikely, with the company expanding its patent lawsuit furor to cover three more major players: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile. These three are the latest cherry-picked to be on the receiving end of CSIRO’s mighty 802.11a/g patent hammer. Companies like Dell, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all chose to settle rather than challenge this patent bully, giving it the encouragement (and cash) to bring the fight to these three new players, apparently named simply because they sold WiFi devices. Sadly, there are more to come according to Executive Director Niger Poole:
I’m not going to be exposing what the legal strategy is to a journalist. There’s a legal strategy here that has been thought through very carefully and to a lay person it looks like a pincer movement. You’ve got court action against upstream chip makers and you’ve got court action against downstream carriers.
Ever pass on an old WiFi-equipped gadget on eBay or gave it to a friend in exchange for a case of beer? Lord Humongous is coming for you next.
[Thanks, Chris]
CSIRO’s patent fight targets more victims: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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