CSIRO spat

Some of the world's most significant suppliers of Wireless Local Area Network (Wireless LAN) devices have initiated legal action in the US to try to stop Australia's

(CSIRO) obtaining reasonable royalties on its key US WLAN patent, it was confirmed today.

Dr Geoff Garrett, Chief Executive of CSIRO, said the US Wireless LAN patent was granted in 1996. The patent is considered essential for implementing wireless local area networks that comply with several IEEE standards, and is now a standard feature of most notebook computers and many other devices.

The companies involved include Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Apple and Netgear.

Dr Garrett said CSIRO's patented system made it possible to increase the speed of WLAN by a factor of five.

He emphasised that CSIRO has a strong background and history in advanced wireless systems.

"For example, as far back as July 1969, CSIRO helped bring the television pictures of the Apollo 11 Moon landing to a worldwide TV audience of 600 million people. In 1970, we helped Apollo Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise get home on Apollo 13 by making our Parkes radio telescope available to communicate with the stricken spacecraft."