Wi-Lan settles with Infineon, gains hundreds of patents

More than a year and a half after suing 22 companies for infringement of three of its Wi-Fi/ODFM patents, Ottawa, Canada-based Wi-Lan Technologies has just settled with one of the defendants, Infineon Technologies, who has agreed to a licensing deal.

As a part of the settlement, Infineon will license several Wi-Lan patents in wireless and wireline technology, including xDSL and Wireless LAN. While most terms of the deal are confidential, a separate transaction occurred between the two companies this week, in which Wi-Lan purchased a number of patents from Infineon.

In total, the company obtained more than 200 new patents which focus mostly on wireless mobile networking, imaging processing, biometrics, optical networking, and multi-antenna wireless systems. In addition to Infineon, Wi-Lan acquired patents from Airspan Networks and Technology Research Laboratories, expanding its properties to more than 520 patents both issued and pending.

Wi-Lan will be paying out $21 million to the three companies incrementally until the second quarter of 2010.

Most of the other patent suits continue. Intel, for example, filed a claim against Wi-Lan last October in the Northern District of California, asking for a declaratory judgment to close the case. On Monday, Wi-Lan's motion to dismiss Intel's case was heard before US District Judge Ware, and a written ruling on the case is pending.