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Mosaid sues ASUS, Dell, RIM, more; 'all' owe Wi-Fi royalties

updated 03:35 pm EDT, Thu March 17, 2011

Mosaid sues Dell, RIM, many over Wi-Fi patents

Mosaid late Wednesday sued as many technology firms as possible in hopes of profiting off the success of Wi-Fi. The Ottawa-based company's complaint targeted major device makers such as ASUS, Canon, Dell, Intel, and RIM as well as those building chipsets, such as Atheros and Marvell, for allegedly infringing six patents covering Wi-Fi, including network finding and the orthogonal multiplexing used for the faster speeds in the newer 802.11n spec. CEO John Lindgren insisted that "all" devices using Wi-Fi were dependent on the patents and had to pay royalties.

The lawsuit asks all the companies to pay damages. It would further ban them from selling virtually any of the chipsets, notebooks, and phones they make or else would require a mandatory royalty from them to keep using what's allegedly Mosaid's technology.

Unlike its fellow litigious Ottawa firm WiLAN, Mosaid makes its own products and is currently focusing on flash memory module technology. In recent years, however, it has focused increasingly on its patent portfolio and has sued heavyweight firms such as Cisco and IBM while also pressing for deals with LG, Samsung, Sony and other large companies. Its lawsuit was filed in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas, a region with courts known to often side with the plaintiff in a patent lawsuit.

The lawsuit could have deep ramifications for most of the technology industry, including companies like Apple, HTC, and others that use Wi-Fi but haven't been sued. Price increases in electronics often come from mounting royalty rates as both legitimate and patent troll companies claim to own technology that they have usually ignored for years.

Mosaid Wi-Fi lawsuit

By Electronista Staff


  1. climacs

    Junior Member

    Joined: Sep 2001


    what do you call 1000 patent attorneys at the bott

    a good start

  1. prl99

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Mar 2009



    Isn't WiFi based on a published standard so any products following that standard are not "owned" by any one company? If not, what good are standards if someone follows them and is sued for it?

    "cover products that operate in compliance with IEEE 802.11 standards"

    79. On July 14, 1992, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) duly an legally issued the ’006 Patent entitled “Carrier Detection For A Wireless Local AreaNetwork”
    I wonder who their proofreader was. I was always taught to use the word "and" instead of "an" in this instance.

    There's very little in this suit that actually talks about what was supposedly infringed upon. The vast majority is boilerplate defining all the companies. They are claiming patents going back to 1992. I'm trying to remember if I even heard of wireless devices back then. Why hasn't this been brought up sooner and why is there a IEEE standard that covers these things if MOSAID feels they own all the patents to wireless?

  1. ggirton

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 1999



    the price differential between WiFi and phone might reduce & we still all have our cat 5 cables. boo doggone hoo

  1. Makosuke

    Junior Member

    Joined: Aug 2001


    On The Ball

    Well, it's good to know that they didn't get around to suing over this purported patent infringement for, what, nineteen years? Obviously totally on top of things that you wouldn't notice such an important patent was being infringed by THE ENTIRE WORLD for the entirety of the previous decade.

    Oh, wait, the patent probably expires after 20 years. Why sue half the world in 2007 when you can sue everybody in 2011?

    These patent troll cases are the one situation in which I'd really love to see big, rich companies bring their massive legal departments to bear in every attempt to obliterate the "company" in question--invalidate every patent they own and bleed them dry with lawyer fees in as many extended court cases as you can come up with. Usually the big dogs are the bad guys, but in these cases we all lose a little bit.

  1. UmarOMC

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001




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