Oopsie - a little legal matter

Looks like Australia just made out like a bandit. From Ars Technica:

How the Aussie government "invented WiFi" and sued its way to $430 million
US consumers will be making a multimillion dollar donation to an Australian government agency in the near future, whether they like it or not. The great majority won't even know about it�the fee will be hidden within the cost of a huge array of tech products. After the resolution of a recent lawsuit, practically every wireless-enabled device sold in the US will now involve a payment to an Australian research organization called the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO.

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. The settlement was reached last week just before the companies were scheduled to face a jury in Tyler, Texas�a location with a growing reputation for patent lawsuits.

CSIRO (commonly pronounced �si-roh�) adds this lump sum to the $205 million it received in 2009, when a settlement with 14 companies was struck midway through another East Texas trial. Soon after that, CSIRO began boasting to the Australian press that WiFi was a homegrown invention. By suing over its patents, it anticipated an additional "lazy billion" out of tech products sold in the US. Ultimately, this didn't quite happen�but CSIRO is about halfway there.

Good on them -- they invented the technology, they should stand to reap the benefits...