A federal judge has stayed a permanent injunction against Buffalo Technology, clearing the way for the company to sell 802.11a, g, and n products in the United States. The injunction goes all the way back to 2007, when the Australian science agency CSIRO sued Buffalo, alleging that the company’s products infringe on a patent covering aspects of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, a method of dividing Wi-Fi channels into narrower subchannels to improve performance. A district court initially found that Buffalo infringed on aspects of the patents, and ordered Buffalo to stop selling infringing products in the United States. The result was that Buffalo was effectively locked out of the U.S. market during the initial boom of high-performance draft-N Wi-Fi gear sales, which undoubtedly hurt the company’s bottom line.
In September, an appeals court sent the case back to district court, questioning the “obviousness” of CSIRO’s patent in a complicated but narrow decision. Buffalo has now used that victory to get the permanent injunction against the sale of its goods in the United States lifted; however, the company could still be liable for damages and other charges if the district court rules in favor of CSIRO.
Buffalo is a leading seller of Wi-Fi gear in its native Japan; the injunction barring sales of Wi-Fi gear in the United States applied to Buffalo Technology, it’s U.S. subsidiary.
ODFM technology is also used in LTE, WiMax, and other wireless communications technologies.
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