Curtin University will receive up to $1.2 million for its part in developing a ground-breaking technology as part of the settlement of a patent infringement case between patent assertion specialist ipernica Ltd and Ericsson.

 

Developed by Professors John Hullett, Tony Cantoni and Zig Budrikis, the technology, referred to as Early Packet Discard, is a method for reducing congestion in data flows over the internet and was adopted as a de facto standard by telecommunication switch vendors.

 

Curtin Director of IP Commercialisation, Rohan McDougall, said this important step was the last in a series of agreements relating to use of the cutting-edge technology by the world’s largest telecommunications companies including Cisco, Nokia, Alcatel, Lucent and Nortel Networks.

 

“This is an important acknowledgement of the roles played by Curtin and the inventors in developing a technology that has played a part in enabling the communications platform of our time,” Mr McDougall said.

 

“It is yet another example of the successful commercialisation of Curtin technology, in collaboration with the private sector, and is great recognition for some of the ground-breaking research conducted at the University.

 

“Curtin looks forward to developing similar projects with ipernica in the future.”

 

Curtin University assigned the patent for the Early Packet Discard technology to ipernica in 2004 for the purpose of creating and implementing a strategy to defend against unauthorised use of the patent.  ipernica’s assertion activities since that time have generated gross revenue of more than $43 million.