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背景：澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation，CSIRO)某年研究出了WIFI的技术，于是申请了相关专利。当年这个不出名的技术，现在已经遍布全球各种电子设备之上了，于是CSIRO开始了状告各个WIFI相关厂商的斗争。
结果是，CSIRO为澳洲政府和自己赢回来几亿美元
下面是最近的消息：
How CSIRO's stars won the WiFi battle
A HANDFUL of clever mathematic algorithms dreamed up by stargazers 20 years ago has netted Australia's top science agency a handsome windfall nearing half a billion dollars.
At the time, the boffins in the CSIRO's Radio Physics division -- primarily radio astronomers -- couldn't possibly have known that they were cracking a physics problem that would make possible wireless connections that would be used in billions of devices by consumers throughout the world.
They had developed technology, known today as WiFi, which makes the wireless connections in around 3 billion mobile phones, laptops and home network devices possible.
Their scientific achievement was cemented as one of Australia's greatest during the early hours of last Saturday morning. Lawyers for CSIRO's commercialisation arm worked furiously to settle litigation in the US with about seven WiFi equipment makers that would net the agency $220 million in royalties.
They needed to get the settlement, foreshadowed in The Australian last month, out of the way in time for federal Science Minister Chris Evans to announce it later that day.
It brought about 10 years of complex litigation in the US to an end and the CSIRO's total royalty tally for the unique patent up to $430m. Half the settlement will go straight to consolidated revenue.
"While we always celebrate Cathy Freeman, or other sports stars, it's time we celebrated Australian scientists," Senator Evans said.
CSIRO commercialisation director Nigel Poole said the agency's projections for take-up of WiFi fell well short of its expectations at every stage of its evolution.
"I've seen early planning where they thought tens of millions of (wireless) units would be sold," Mr Poole said. "Ten years ago when we started (the) licensing process we thought there might be hundreds of millions. Then, a few years ago, we realised it was going to be billions."
That was when technologists were still debating whether WiFi connection chips would end up in mobile phones. Consumers flocked to online video services such as YouTube, guaranteeing WiFi a crucial role giving phones the bandwidth boost they'd need to consume them on the move.
In retrospect, cracking the maths, even though CSIRO beat 22 major international research agencies to the punch, was the easy bit.
Convincing the world's technology giants including Microsoft, Intel and Dell of the patent's importance, proved to be much harder.
In 1990, the CSIRO's Radio Physics division set about working out how to transmit video over a wireless network at 54Mbps, which was considered on par with wired networks.
The team came up with a set of crucial mathematic algorithms and concepts for a wireless network that could let large amounts of data bounce around open spaces quickly and be reassembled by a receiver without using excessive battery power.
The CSIRO applied for patents for the technology in the US and was granted them in 1996.
In 1997, Macquarie University professor David Skellern and a colleague, professor Neil Weste, started Radiata, which took on a non-exclusive licence for the technology, and began developing the world's first WiFi chips using it.
Dr Skellern, who later became chief executive of National ICT Australia, and Dr Weste sold the company to networking equipment company Cisco Systems for about $600m in 2000.
In 2002, Cisco began producing its first commercial WiFi routers.
Copycat devices using the technology began appearing on the market in 2002 and CSIRO spent the next two years knocking on doors seeking royalty payments with no success.
Early in 2005, CSIRO sued wireless chipmaker Buffalo Technology in the US District Court, kicking off seven years of fierce litigation that would see the agency face down all the major brands in consumer technology.
Eventually, its strategy touched the US's top three mobile carriers -- AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile -- as it went after the smartphone segment.
In May 2005, Intel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Netgear counter-sued the CSIRO in an attempt to have its patent overturned.
Confident of the progress of its case against Buffalo, CSIRO filed further lawsuits against Toshiba, ASUStek, Fujitsu, Nintendo, D-Link, Belkin, SMC Networks and 3Com in December 2006.
As the cases progressed to trial, Intel and another WiFi chipmaker, Marvell Technology Group, separately applied to the US Patent and Trademarks Office to have the patent overturned. In June 2007, the US district court granted the CSIRO a crucial injunction against the sale of Buffalo's products in the US. Buffalo's appeal against the decision failed.
By early 2009, the armada of technology giants that had joined the litigation in support of Buffalo for a jury trial had grown to 14 while laptop makers Sony, Lenovo and Acer looked on.
In April of that year, just as the case was about to go to trial, HP blinked. It agreed to settle and the coalition crumbled. All 14 companies settled with CSIRO, netting its first major royalty win of about $205m.
By September, CSIRO had fixed its sights on Sony, Lenovo and Acer. Chipmakers Atheros and Broadcom counter-sued in November, reviving Intel's effort to have the patent overturned.
CSIRO was being accused of greed and speculation surfaced that it would take on BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and emerging smartphone giant Apple. Doubters asked how a few mathematic algorithms could be worth so much to an industry pumping billions into WiFi product development. "If the problem was so unimportant, then why did 22 major research agencies around the world, including IBM, shut down their wireless research when the CSIRO published its results?" Mr Poole said yesterday.
CSIRO pushed on with its litigation in May 2010, but its strategy took a new direction. Its sights pirouetted on to AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, marking its first swipe at companies more distantly engaged with the technology at a retail level.
CSIRO was putting smartphone makers like Apple, RIM and Android device makers on notice that their best clients could be exposed to legal liability if they did not take steps to stop it.
Early this year, CSIRO began confidential negotiations with about seven unnamed manufacturers ahead of its trial against the carriers and laptop makers.
The identity of the companies involved in the $220m settlement has been sealed as part of the agreement. CSIRO now believes it has 90 per cent of the international manufacturing base for WiFi equipment licensed. However, the agency is silent about its plans for the remaining 10 per cent. "That's a matter for the CSIRO board," Mr Poole said. |
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P41 ❤ L1210 COCHO！！COCHO！强势回归！ (2009-6-4) 娃娃小爱 
良辰美景之我家王拉拉 (2005-4-5) maggie_wang 
发表于 2012-4-3 23:50
唉哟，有钱总比没钱强
