But this Bloomberg article names another patent holder: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-03...
This may be one of those situations where the answer is more complex than the name of a single company.
There is a good article on About.com that goes into a little more detail here: http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinve...
there are no patents on wi-fi itself - cos wifi equipment is designed to implement a standard
Since a standard is not a patent then anybody can design stuff to meet it and use it for wifi
the companies "lessa" and "bhratemployment" quote do not have patents for wi-fi but for equipment/chips that fulfil the standard
Nobody is forced to use their stuff, but its cheaper to pay a license fee and use it than design and make new chips yourself.
(its like a car manufacturer A having a patent on the design of the engine it uses.
There is nothing to stop anybody making their own cars and designing their own engine, but they could pay a license fee and use A's engine in their cars)
In the culmination of a nearly decade-long patent campaign, CSIRO has now scored a $229 million settlement from a group of nine companies that make a variety of wireless devices and chips, including Broadcom, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Lenovo.
If your company owns a patent and you want it included in any sort of standard, you are generally required to release any proprietary claim to the invention claimed, under rules of anti-competition.
Nobody you cant put a patent on Wifi. You can put a patent on the type of modem
Al Gore, the inventor of the internet.
ter
netgear, cicso etc.
