A US University has filed a patent suit against Nokia, Samsung
and Matsushita over the Bluetooth chips in their mobile phones.
CSR, the Cambridge, UK supplier of the Bluetooth chips used in the
phones, promised to defend its products "vigorously", slamming the legal suit as
"without merit in relation to CSR's Bluetooth chips".
By Gavin Clarke for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
The suit has been brought in a US district court by the
Washington Research Foundation (WRF), a West-coast organization
that helps the Washington State University market and sell its IP
and technology.
CSR is not targeted by the lawsuit, but the action claims its
chips used in handsets from Nokia, Samsung and Panasonic use
technology that infringes the University's radio frequency
patents.
WRF's filing follows the standard template for alleging patent
violation, saying: "Defendants have manufactured, used, imported
into the United States, sold and offered for sale devices which, or
the use of which, infringes at least the '963' patent."
This is the latest claim against Bluetooth, and appears to
center on the patent awarded to University of Washington scientist
Edwin Suominen in 1999 for devising a "simplified high-frequency
broadband tuner and tuning method".
WRF is seeking damages from the cell phone makers for using the
University's technology without paying royalties. Bluetooth is used
in millions of devices, with more shipped each week and Nintendo's
Wii being the latest piece of consumer hardware to adopt the
technology.
By focusing on the US, WRF's action could potentially affect to
a fifth of the World's cell phones.
© The Register
2007
