Competing Against Governments and Universities

A recent case in the Eastern District of Texas reminds us that businesses have to look beyond other commercial entities when it comes to competitive pressures. In CSIRO v. Buffalo Technology, Inc., the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Australian national research lab and technology licensing arm, sued Japanese company Buffalo Technology for infringing on a 1992 patent that CSIRO claimed covered all of 802.11 a/g wireless technology. The Australian agency just got an injunction against Buffalo, as the Patently-O blog and other sources have reported.

A large number of prominent companies are trying to challenge the patent. Whether the patent is valid and reasonable or not, what has become clear is that the days of thinking that competition meant only other companies are over. Universities and governments, all in need of revenue sources, are looking at their intellectual property to see what it might offer. Now consider that even a smaller country is going to have financial resources beyond the wildest avarice of corporate managers. Fail to consider what such control and are willing to do, and you could find yourself on the wrong side of a judgment.