Canadian wireless firm may sue global tech giants

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Canadian wireless firm may sue global tech giants
Bangalore: Canada based wireless company Wi-LAN, which patents wireless products; plans to sue around 18 of the tech industry's largest players over what it claims are patent violations of Bluetooth technology, reports Cnet. The company is alleging that these companies, which include Acer, Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Motorola, Sony, and Toshiba, have infringed on one of its U.S. patents for selling PCs and mobile phones equipped with Bluetooth. The suit claims a violation of Wi-LAN's U.S. Patent No. 5,515,369. This patent was issued in 1996, and covers a "method for frequency sharing and frequency punchout in frequency hopping communications network." The report shows that the patent was issued to Metricom, once famous for launching one of the first wireless Internet services, known as Ricochet, before going bankrupt almost 10 years ago. But when asked about the connection between Metricom and Wi-LAN, the company declined to comment. This would not be the first time that Wi-LAN would be taking companies to the court. In 2002, it had sued Redline Communications over the use of a wireless networking technology that the company claimed violated one of its patents. Shortly after that case was settled out of court in 2004, the company raised its game by suing networking giant Cisco Systems over a similar allegation. In 2007, Wi-LAN had filed another suit against 22 different companies, many of them also mentioned in the latest lawsuit. The 2007 case claimed that these companies had violated key Wi-LAN patents for Wi-FI and DSL technology in laptops and routers. Another case launched in June 2008 targeted wireless handset manufacturers. Both cases are set to go to trial in January 2011.