Press Releases
United States Appellate Court Rules in Buffalo
24/09/2008
The Australian science agency CSIRO sued Buffalo Inc. and its US affiliate Buffalo Technology (USA) Inc. in a United States district court, alleging that Buffalo’s products infringed its U.S. Patent 5,487,069, which concerns Wi-Fi technology relating to the transmission of wireless signals. After the district court held that Buffalo’s products infringed certain claims of the patent and that those claims were valid, the district court ordered Buffalo to stop selling its allegedly infringing products in the U.S. Buffalo appealed that order to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
On September 19, 2008, the Federal Circuit ruled in Buffalo’s favor and has remanded this case to the district court ruling that the district court’s Summary Judgment was insufficient on the merits of obviousness of CSIRO patent. Therefore, this case will be tried again before the district court.
In this connection Buffalo is hopeful that it will shortly be permitted to, once again, sell IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g compliant products in the United States. The US ruling does not have any legal implications on Buffalo Technology in EMEA nor sales of Buffalo's wireless products within these regions.
“Buffalo appreciates the rulings of the Federal Circuit and are very pleased to have an opportunity to get our case defended at jury trial” said Masanao Tsuzuki, Director of Buffalo Inc.
Buffalo expects that the district court will, in the near future, schedule a trial on whether the patent claims are invalid because the claims were “obvious” at the time CSIRO filed for its patent, and will put forth every effort to prevail the retrial at the district court.
About Buffalo Technology
Buffalo is a global manufacturer of innovative storage, multimedia, and wireless networking products for the home and small business. The company is recognised as the Number 1 total PC peripheral manufacturer in Japan, and was the worldwide consumer NAS market leader in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (In-Stat).
The company's storage products are addressing the needs of the individual and the business, providing cost-effective network attached storage (NAS), portable and desktop hard drives, multimedia players, Wireless LAN routers and a versatile line of USB flash drives, which together offer a complete and integrated solution for the small office and digital home environment.
Buffalo's product portfolio includes its TeraStation NAS devices which are specifically designed to bring Enterprise storage to the SMB. The LinkStation range of NAS products, takes multimedia NAS to the home. The LinkStation Live & Mini enables you to create a central location to store files, photos and music, simply and easily. The Nfiniti™ range of easy-to-use, high performance wireless networking products for the SMB/SoHo and home user, with industry-leading AOSS™ (AirStation One-Touch Secure System) technology, allows users to build and manage secure wireless networks at home or in the office at the push of a button.
Buffalo's strong international industry alliances with companies such as Intel, Broadcom™, Nintendo and Microsoft have allowed it to lead the industry in the development of the latest technologies into practical tools for the business and the home.
Headquartered in Japan, Buffalo Technology has offices in the UK, France, The Netherlands, Germany, USA and Taiwan. For more information please visit www.buffalo-technology.com.
Buffalo, Inc. trademark statements. Buffalo is a trademark of Buffalo, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
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