WiLAN, a technology development and intellectual property licensing company with headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, licenses patent portfolios that it owns in addition to partnering with owners of patent portfolios through its subsidiary, Gladios IP. Also, through another of its subsidiary, Cygnus Broadband, the company conducts ongoing research and development into advanced wireless communication systems.
It has licensed its intellectual property to over 280 companies worldwide and states that inventions in their portfolios have been licensed by companies that manufacture or sell a wide range of communication and consumer electronics products including 3G and 4G handsets, Wi-Fi enabled laptops, Wi-Fi and broadband routers, xDSL infrastructure equipment, cellular base stations and digital TV receivers. WiLAN current portfolio consists of over 4,000 issued or pending patents.
Last week, WiLAN announced that through one of its subsidiaries had acquired a patent portfolio that relates to automotive diagnostic technology. Apparently, in the financial side, the company is doing very well. While WiLAN did not discuss any of the details associated with the acquisition, it was mentioned that the company does not consider the purchase amount to be material relative to its current cash position.
Information about this acquisition comes to us on the same day as news concerning a patent case against Apple. WiLAN announced that a U.S. district court judge ruled that several claims within its ‘802 patent were found to be improperly invalidated by the jury.
An analyst at Clarus Securities, Eyal Ofir, said, “While the judge denied other aspects of Wi-LAN’s motion for judgment, we believe that the judge’s ruling overall is a net positive as it strengthens Wi-LAN’s position in a potential appeal.” The favorable ruling was for a CDMA/Wi-Fi patent case.
Also according to Jim Skippen, president and CEO of WiLAN, "This acquisition, our second in the automotive market, strengthens our footprint in this market. The portfolio is an example of the broad range of technologies that are coming to WiLAN from many patent owners who are actively seeking WiLAN's assistance in monetizing their inventions through licensing partnerships or outright acquisition by WiLAN."
A couple of years ago, WiLAN acquired patents and applications from Siemens AG that related to telecommunication network management and mobile multimedia. The company is ready to put those patents to use. At the beginning of this month, WiLAN announced that yet another of its subsidiaries had entered into a license agreement with an un-named wireless carrier in the U.S. for patents related to wireless network management.
The key patents being licensed all revolve around security techniques used in wireless networks throughout the world. As we have seen, security is and always will remain a paramount concern when it comes to wireless technology. The more that enterprises invest in making their workforce mobile, the more that the need for security grows.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi 
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