CSIRO seizes another Wi-Fi royalties win

CSIRO today confirmed that it has entered a royalties agreement with US chipmaker Marvell Technology Group over the Australian research agency's well-publicised Wi-Fi patent.

CSIRO's commercialisation director Nigel Poole confirmed to ZDNet Australia that Marvell has agreed to settle the matter in commercial negotiations, but declined to comment further.

Poole told The Australian that CSIRO had agreed to license its patents to Marvell for a confidential sum of money.

However, he said that CSIRO's legal efforts had only caught a small portion of manufacturers who are currently selling the technology, but are breaching its patent rights.

This is the latest development in a line of legal wrangling initiated by CSIRO over its Wi-Fi patent.

CSIRO has held this patent since 1993. Earlier this year CSIRO had initiated patent infringement lawsuits in the US District Court over its patent.

So far, the science agency has been successful in reaching agreements with Microsoft, Fujitsu, Asus and HP in early 2009.

It is currently engaged in a legal foray against US carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile.