Apple, Others Sued by WiLAN Over Use of Wireless Tech

Wi-LAN Inc., a software and hardware company that designs, develops and manufactures solutions for the multimedia and cable television industries, has sued Apple over an alleged patent infringement by its wireless-capable products.

Since it was founded in 1992, WiLAN has licensed its intellectual property to over 250 companies worldwide, the company said today.

“Inventions in our portfolio have been licensed by companies that manufacture or sell a wide range of communication and consumer electronics products including 3G and 4G handsets, Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, Wi-Fi and broadband routers, xDSL infrastructure equipment, cellular base stations and digital television receivers,” said WiLAN officials.

With a growing portfolio of more than 1400 issued and pending patents (it would have been quite relevant to specify how many on each side), WiLAN today announced that it has commenced litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division against numerous companies.

The news comes high on the heels of a similar legal action by Openwave Systems targeting Apple over the way iOS devices connect to the web.

Apple is one of the ‘collective’ defendants in WiLAN’s suit.

In fact, it’s the first one mentioned in the filing, but that mostly has to do with their naming in alphabetical order.

Others include Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, HTC America, Inc., Kyocera International, Inc., Kyocera Communications, Inc., Novatel Wireless, Inc., and Sierra Wireless America, Inc.

The filing submitted by WiLAN claims that Apple and the rest of the bunch “have infringed and continue to infringe WiLAN’s U.S. Patent No. RE37,802 (“the ‘802’ Patent”) related to CDMA and HSPA and U.S. Patent No. 5,282,222 (“the ‘222’ Patent”) related to Wi-Fi and LTE.”

WiLAN will be represented in this action by McKool Smith, a leading U.S. law firm specializing in intellectual property litigation, will be representing WiLAN in this action

The firm is said to have successfully defended the patent rights of numerous high-ranking U.S. companies and that it knows its way around the Eastern District of Texas.

WiLAN has McKool Smith by its side in other patent infringement actions as well, all filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.