Nokia, Samsung, and Panasonic sued for patent infringement

Three companies allegedly violate Bluetooth patents

3 January 2007 12:29 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Apple isn't the only one facing patent disputes at the moment. Nokia, Samsung, and Panasonic are all named in a lawsuit over Bluetooth technology brought by The Washington Research Foundation.

The institute named products that used Bluetooth chips made by CSR, the company that has a 50% share in the global Bluetooth chip market, although it hasn't sued CSR itself.

"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", Washington Research Foundation said in a papers filed at a Washington state court.

Three other patents have also allegedly been infringed by the three company.

Broadcom, one of CSR's chief rivals in the market, apparently acquired a license to use the technology in the 1999 patent, and is therefore also not named in the suit.

“Each of the defendants has an option to avoid infringement of the subject patents and applications by purchasing Bluetooth chipsets from Broadcom”, the Institute said in papers filed at court.

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Biz, Lawsuits, Patents, Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic