[IP] Cisco Sued by Canadian Wireless Player
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 23, 2004 7:09:41 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Cisco Sued by Canadian Wireless Player
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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.
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