NetGear, Rayspan Sued for Patent Infringement

Ruckus Wireless, a pioneer in development of Wi-Fi technology, has filed suit in the United States Court for the Northern District of California against NetGearNTGR and Rayspan Corporation for patent infringement.

The patents named in the suit are fundamental to Wi-Fi antenna arrays like those developed by Ruckus Wireless.

Ruckus alleges that in the development of the NetGear RangeMax WPN 824v3 wireless router, NetGear and Rayspan infringed two Wi-Fi patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,358,912 and 7,193,562).

Officially, Ruckus and NetGear entered into a technology licensing agreement in January 2005, under which Ruckus developed the underlying technology within the NetGear RangeMax 824v1 and v2 wireless routers, the predecessors to the RangeMax 824v.3 at issue. The resulting hardware and software technology developed for NetGear was owned and patented by Ruckus Wireless.

Ruckus is still getting royalties from this business relationship, but claims that NetGear has developed its own "Smart Wi-Fi" technology by effectively copying the original, patented board design.

According to NetGear, the RangeMax 824 has quickly become one of the fastest and best-selling products in its history. To date, NetGear has shipped more than 1.7 million RangeMax 824 units worldwide. Ruckus now develops, markets and manufactures its own brand of Smart Wi-Fi products.

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 our testing here in TheStreet.com's newsroom, a Ruckus Wireless Model 2825 Multimedia Wireless Router is our current favorite. Wireless signal coverage over our large open spaces -- and distant nooks and crannies -- borders on amazing.

Neither NetGear nor Rayspan has yet commented on the lawsuit.