CSIRO wins transfer of US WLAN court case

A federal court in California has agreed with CSIRO that upcoming US WLAN patent cases brought against CSIRO should be heard in Texas by the same court that recently found in favour of CSIRO against Buffalo companies.

The court has said that patent cases brought against CSIRO by Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Netgear should be transferred to the court which is already familiar with the CSIRO patent infringement case in the Eastern District of Texas.

"CSIRO welcomes this decision and looks forward to the matter being dealt with in the Eastern District of Texas," said CSIRO Chief Executive Geoff Garrett.

Dr Garret said that the California cases started in May 2005 because Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Netgear sued CSIRO, asking the court to declare that their products did not infringe CSIRO's US WLAN patent and that CSIRO's patent was invalid.

He said CSIRO had previously taken infringement action against Buffalo companies in Texas.
In November 2006 the Texas Court, on summary judgment motions, found in favour of CSIRO on all issues of patent infringement and validity.

The Buffalo case now goes to trial before a jury in February 2007 on the issue of damages.

CSIRO is seeking a reasonable royalty for the use of its WLAN patented invention.

Source: CSIRO Australia