Millions to Flow From CSIRO Wi-Fi Win

Australia’s top science agency has walloped some of the world’s biggest industrial giants in the US patent courts to bring the country a pay check worth up to $1 billion over the next five to 10 years. The CSIRO has won its long-running battle to enforce a patent on technology used in Wi-fi connections that have become virtually ubiquitous in laptops and other devices around the world. Hewlett-Packard was the first of 13 companies to back down early this month when it opted to settle the patent dispute rather than take it before a jury trial in the US federal court. Alex Zelinsky, director of the science agency’s ICT Centre, today confirmed that all of its opponents had chosen to settle the case rather than go ahead with another trial