Anonymous

Australia

Student

CSIRO filed for this patent in 1992 and it was granted in 1996. The patents for wireless networks came out of their groundbreaking work in radio astronomy.

When IEEE were developing the 802.11a standard in 1997, CSIRO notified them that some of the technology in the standard was covered by their patent. IEEE acknowledged this and asked CSIRO if they were willing to license the patent for free. CSIRO declined, but offered to license the technology to any company for a "reasonable fee". IEEE were happy with this, and continued to use the technology in the standard.

Unfortunately, when companies started developing the technology based on this standard, they didn't pay royalties. CSIRO has been trying to negotiate with these companies for years, to attempt to work out a licensing agreement, but many companies have flat-out refused to speak with them, so they ended up having to launch expensive legal action.

It is a shame that companies didn't just pay the royalties as they were supposed to (as happens with other standards, such as the DVD standard). This legal action is having a large impact on the CSIRO's small budget, and is sapping up funding that could be used for their medical research. However, they don't really have a choice. The only alternative to launching legal action is to miss out on the royalties that their patent entitles them to.

Just to re-iterate, CSIRO notified the IEEE about their patent when the wireless network standards were being developed, and IEEE acknowledged their right to collect licensing fees. However, the companies developing the wireless equipment are refusing to pay the fees. I don't see how CSIRO is in the wrong here. If you want to blame anyone, blame the hardware companies, or the IEEE for including technology that was clearly patented in their standards.