Wi-LAN Sues Everybody over Bluetooth

A small Canadian wireless company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony and Motorola claiming PC and mobile phones with Bluetooth infringe on their patents.

Announced Thursday, the suit claims a violation of Wi-LAN's U.S. Patent No. 5,515,369. Issued in 1996, the patent covers a "method for frequency sharing and frequency punchout in frequency hopping communications network." In plain English, that means the patent is for a technology by which wireless systems such as Bluetooth avoid interfering with other wireless systems such as Wi-Fi, which operate in an unlicensed frequency, according to Tyler Burns, Wi-LAN's director of investor relations and communciations.

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