Why it is profiled? The company has reached a deal with one of the lead defendants in the ongoing patent infringement lawsuits.
Ottawa-based Wi-Lan Inc. (WIN.TO) is a technology innovation and licensing company. The company touts a large and growing portfolio of more than 970 issued or pending patents. Wi-Lan's technologies are licensed by companies that manufacture or sell communication and consumer electronics products including 3G cellular handsets, Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, Wi-Fi/DSL routers, xDSL infrastructure equipment, WiMAX base stations and digital television receivers.
Wi-Lan has a history of suing a number of companies for patent infringement, which dates back to 2002.
In 2002, Wi-Lan sued a private Canadian company, Redline Communications for infringing on its patents related to a wireless technology - OFMD (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing). The suit was settled in 2004 with Redline agreeing to pay Wi-LAN a royalty for every advanced OFDM wireless device that it has produced and will produce in the future, regardless of where the devices are sold. Redline became a public company on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2007.
Following the successful settlement of the Redline Communications lawsuit, in June 2004, Wi-Lan commenced legal action in Canada against Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) over a similar allegation - infringement of W-OFDM technology. The lawsuit was settled in December 2005 and Cisco purchased from Wi-Lan several WiMax and antenna patents and received a license to Wi-LAN's patent portfolio.
In November 2007, Wi-Lan initiated litigation against 22 major technology companies claiming that they violated its patents related to Wi-Fi and to power consumption in DSL. The 22 companies against whom Wi-Lan filed patent infringement suits included Acer Inc., Apple Inc. (AAPL), Atheros Communications Inc. (ATHR), Belkin International Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., Broadcom Corp. (BRCM), Buffalo Technology (USA) Inc., Circuit City Stores, Inc., Dell Inc. (DELL), D-Link Corporation, Gateway Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Infineon Technologies AG (IFX), Intel Corp. (INTC), Lenovo Group Ltd., Marvell Semiconductor Inc., Netgear Inc. (NTGR), Sony Corp. (SNE), Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), Toshiba Corporation, Westell Technologies Inc., and 2Wire Inc.
The following year - in June 2008, Wi-Lan sued wireless handset manufacturers - Motorola, Inc., Research in Motion Corp. (RIMM, RIM.TO), Research In Motion, Ltd. and UTStarcom Inc. (UTSI), alleging patent infringement of its technology. The same year, Wi-Lan also settled its patent dispute in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with Marvell Semiconductor Inc.
The year 2010 was a busy one for Wi-Lan on the legal front.
January 2010 - Wi-Lan initiated fraud and V-Chip patent litigation against Korean company LG. The fraud and breach of contract relates to LG's failure to pay WiLAN in accordance with a previously signed license agreement, and the patent suit relates to infringement of WiLAN's patented V-Chip technology.
April 2010 - Wi-Lan sued around 18 companies for patent violations related to Bluetooth technology. The companies named in the April 2010 suit Acer, Inc., Acer America Corporation, Apple, Atheros, Belkin International, Inc., Broadcom, Dell, D-Link Corporation, D-Link Systems, Inc., Gateway, Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lenovo Group, Lenovo (United States) Inc., LG Electronics Mobilecomm U.S.A., Inc., LG Electronics, Inc., Marvell Semiconductor, Inc., Motorola, Inc., Personal Communications Devices, LLC, Sony Corporation, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Electronics, Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc., Texas Instruments, Incorporated, Toshiba America, Inc., Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Toshiba Corporation, and UTStarcom, Inc.
In August 2010, Wi-Lan settled all patent litigation with UTStarcom, which became the 11th handset maker and 99th company to reach an agreement with WiLAN, joining Research in Motion, Nokia, Samsung and many others.
Last October, Wi-Lan filed a suit against Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Exedea and LG Electronics for infringing patents related to 3GPP technology used in mobile handheld devices, base stations and other equipment.
The latest legal salvo was fired by Wi-Lan last November against cable companies, Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable, Inc., and Charter Communications.
In December of 2010 Wi-Lan settled with one more defendant in the pending wireless patent litigation - LG, which obtained a multi-year license to certain patents of WiLAN, and agreed to make a series of fixed cash payments to WiLAN. Other terms of the agreement were confidential.
The trial related to violation of Wi-Lan's patents over the use of Wi-Fi technology is scheduled for February 2, with jury selection to begin on January 21.
Meanwhile, on January 14, Wi-Lan agreed to end all patent litigation with Intel, one of the major defendants in the patent infringement suits. The agreement calls for Intel to take a multi-year license to WiLAN's patent portfolio and to make a series of payments to WiLAN. Specific financial terms of the agreement reached are confidential. A final definitive agreement related to the resolution of the patent lawsuit is expected to be signed within the next few weeks.
Now that Intel has agreed to end the litigation with Wi-Lan, and if the other defendants in the Laptop and Router cases follow suit, that means signing of some more licenses may be in the offing.
Wi-Lan is scheduled to report its Q4 and full-year 2010 results on March 2. Last November, the company boosted its revenue guidance for full-year 2010 for the second time to a range of C$46.0 million to C$48.0 million from its prior revised outlook range of C$43.0 million to C$47.0 million, due to the signing of additional licenses and higher than expected royalty from certain licensees. This compares with revenue of C$35.4 million in fiscal 2009.
Shares of Wi-Lan touched a new 52-week intraday high of C$7 on Friday before closing the day's trading at C$6.93, gaining more than 11%.
No doubt, the strength of a patent is assessed by the number of lawsuits it can win. However, there are two options in a patent litigation - fight or settle. Wi-Lan has been been able to resolve its disputes through negotiation rather through continued litigation. After all, all's well that ends well!
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.