Research conducted by a University of
Washington undergraduate more than a decade ago has
become the subject of a lawsuit filed against some of
the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world.
The suit claims that consumer
electronics giant Matsushita and its Panasonic unit,
as well as Samsung and Nokia, are infringing on four
patents sold under the "Bluetooth" name.
Washington Research Foundation (WRF),
which assists Washington universities with
commercializing technology, filed the suit Dec. 21 in
U.S. District Court for the Western District of
Washington.
Bluetooth technology is used in
wireless headsets, or as a means of exchanging data
between mobile phones, PCs and other devices without
using cables. A blinking blue light is the product's
signature. As of November, one billion Bluetooth
devices had been shipped, according to the Bluetooth
Special Interest Group (SIG), a trade association.
WRF is asking for a court order
barring the sale of products that use the patented
technology and for monetary damages to be determined
by a jury.
The defendants in the case did not
reply to requests seeking comment.
The patents trace back to Ed
Suominen, a student who was studying radio design at
the University of Washington before receiving a
bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1995.
"That's what's unusual about it,"
said John Reagh, WRF's manager of business development
and legal affairs. "We manage a number of patents for
the university, and I can't think of another one where
the inventor wasn't a Ph.D."
Suominen, who now lives in Eastern
Washington and is a technical adviser in the case,
gave the rights to the patents to the UW, which, in
turn, exclusively licensed the patents to the
foundation to manage.
Reagh said the foundation has been
keeping a close eye on the patents, and when it became
apparent that Bluetooth was one of the obvious
applications for it, it started to study the
industry's players.
He said a number of the Bluetooth
chipset manufacturers appeared to be infringing on the
patent. One company, Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom,
agreed to license the technology. Another company CSR
of Cambridge, United Kingdom, did not, Reagh said.
Matsushita, Samsung and Nokia are
some of CSR's largest customers, said WRF attorney
Steven Lisa. Instead of suing CSR, he said the
organization decided to act against the handset makers
because the chipset manufacturer may not know which
chips are headed to the United States, where the
patent is enforceable, but the device-maker would.
Bluetooth is a standard developed by
a number of companies in the mobile industry and
overseen by the Bellevue-based Bluetooth SIG. There
are many patents surrounding the technology; the ones
held by WRF represent only four.
"You can find a way to do it [use
Bluetooth] that doesn't infringe on the patents, or
you can buy it from Broadcom. That's why WRF is not
going to sit back and let it go without it being
addressed," Lisa said.
If WRF is awarded damages, the money
will go to the University of Washington and a portion
will go to Suominen, Reagh said.
