Cisco Sued by Canadian Wireless Player

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: June 23, 2004 7:09:41 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Cisco Sued by Canadian Wireless Player
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Cisco Sued by Canadian Wireless Player

By Suzanne Deffree -- 6/23/2004
Electronic News
<http://email.electronicnews.com/cgi-bin2/DM/y/ehXB0Ejxr10DbD0CEiX0Ak>

After a successful suit against Redline Communications, Wi-LAN Inc. has 
turned the legal heat on Cisco Systems Inc.

 Taking aim at the networking giant's Linksys division and Aironet 
product line, the Canadian company is claiming that its IP has been 
infringed upon.

According to Wi-LAN, the acceptance of its W-OFDM technology, and the 
company's recent purchase of 17 patents and patent applications that 
relate to the implementation of Wi-MAX certified products, has pushed 
it to pursue licensing and the protection of its intellectual property. 
In that regard, Wi-LAN has started legal action in Canada against Cisco 
for producing and marketing IEEE standard 802.11a and 802.11g devices 
without a license from Wi-LAN.

 Specifically, the company is claiming that Cisco's Linksys division 
and Aironet product line use advanced orthogonal frequency division 
multiplexing (OFDM) technology, and it is Wi-LAN's belief that these 
devices infringe on its Canadian patent number 2,064,975 and United 
States patents No. 5,282,222 and 5,555,268.

 "This legal action against Cisco puts the industry on notice that 
Wi-LAN will aggressively protect its patent rights," Sayed-Amr El 
Hamamsy, president and CEO of Wi-LAN, said in a statement. "Wi-LAN has 
consistently maintained that its patents are necessary for the 
implementation of the second generation WiFi Alliance standards, IEEE 
802.11a and 802.11g, and the WiMAX Forum standards, IEEE 802.16 and the 
ETSI BRAN HiperMAN. It is our intent to collect, either directly or 
through component manufacturers, royalties from any company selling 
802.11a, 802.11g or WiMAX certified equipment."

 Wi-LAN is seeking compensation for use of its IP as well as punitive 
damages from Cisco. But Cisco says if the infringement claims are found 
to be valid, it would not be the only company in hot water.

"Wi-LAN claims that its patents are related to industry standards and 
appears to be applying the patents to the WiFi industry as a whole," a 
Cisco spokeswoman said.

 The spokeswoman continued to say the company would respond as 
appropriate after reviewing Wi-LAN's claims.

Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/