SUNNYVALE, CA – May 6, 2008 – Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (Ruckus), a pioneer in development of Wi-Fi technology, today announced it has filed suit in the United States Court for the Northern District of California against NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR) and Rayspan Corporation for patent infringement.
In its filing, Ruckus Wireless alleges that in the development of the NETGEAR RangeMaxâ„¢ WPN 824v3 wireless router, NETGEAR and Rayspan knowingly infringed two Wi-Fi patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,358,912 [1] and 7,193,562 [2]) granted to Ruckus Wireless by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The patents-in-suit are fundamental to intelligent and adaptable Wi-Fi antenna arrays like those developed by Ruckus Wireless. Ruckus has over 70 patents granted or pending worldwide in the area of intelligent antenna or wireless technology innovation.
In its complaint, Ruckus Wireless alleges that NETGEAR makes, uses, offers to sell, sells and imports in the United States the RangeMax WPN 824v3 wireless router that infringes the patents-in-suit without being licensed by Ruckus Wireless to do so. Ruckus Wireless also alleges that Rayspan has committed acts of contributory infringement by making, using, offering to sell, selling and importing into the United States components incorporated into NETGEAR wireless routers that infringe the patents-in-suit.
"As a company we have single-mindedly focused on making Wi-Fi networks robust in spite of the medium's inherent instability. We have spent years developing what is now recognized around the world as one-of-a-kind, breakthrough technology that brings new levels of range, performance and reliability to Wi-Fi," said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless.
"Our unique Smart Wi-Fi innovations have received dozens of industry awards [3] and their benefits have been available to over a million users around the world. These breakthroughs are coveted by many within the industry. We must and will diligently protect our intellectual property to keep others from benefiting from the results of our years of hard work, scientific research, product development and market education. We are flattered but deeply disappointed that NETGEAR has chosen to effectively copy our technology and disregard our intellectual property rights," concluded Lo.
Ruckus Wireless seeks a permanent injunction that bars NETGEAR and Rayspan from making, using, importing, offering to sell or selling the allegedly infringing products. Ruckus is also seeking damages and reasonable royalties realized by the sale of the RangeMax WPN 824v3 product, and possibly other infringing products, as well as statutory damages.
In January 2005, Ruckus Wireless and NETGEAR announced and entered into a technology licensing agreement under which Ruckus would develop the underlying technology within the NETGEAR RangeMax 824v1 and v2 wireless routers. The resulting hardware and software technology developed for NETGEAR was explicitly owned and patented by Ruckus Wireless.
According to NETGEAR, the RangeMax 824 has quickly become one of the fastest and best selling products in its history and the industry's "top selling MIMO-G product line" (http://www.netgear.com/About/PressReleases/en-US/2005/20050727.aspx [4]). To date, NETGEAR has shipped around the world more than 1.7 million RangeMax 824 units integrating Ruckus Wireless technology.
Ruckus Wireless does not currently license its "Smart Wi-Fi" technology to any other company. The company uniquely develops, markets and manufactures its own popular brand of award-winning Smart Wi-Fi products and systems. Ruckus was recently recognized by the World Economic Forum as a 2007 Technology Pioneer [5] and, to date, has received over 20 awards for its efforts in Wi-Fi technology innovation.
Consequently, Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi technology has become widely adopted around the world as the superior method for extending the range and increasing the reliability and performance of Wi-Fi. Smart Wi-Fi defines the use of a miniaturized intelligent antenna array and expert control software to form and direct Wi-Fi signals over the best path at any given time – continuously adapting to changes in the radio frequency (RF) environment.
"Ruckus Wireless is a pioneer in the area of adaptive smart antenna systems and the technology is really hard to get right," said Bill Kish, co-founder and CTO at Ruckus Wireless. "The advances we've made in countering the effect of interference and other RF challenges through the combination of cost-effective antenna arrays and sophisticated antenna control software are truly remarkable and unique. Like any technology innovator, we are obligated to protect the intellectual property that makes companies like ours valuable, and the investments -- both monetary and emotional -- in making difficult innovations worthwhile," concluded Kish.