Proxim Loses WiFi Patent Battle Against Symbol

The wireless industry continues to look at patents as a backroom issue, rather than a serious problem in establishing standards. So far, most of the patent battles we've been seeing are about making sure some company "gets their's" rather than about innovating (the point, remember, of the patent system). We've talked about Wi-LAN's decision to go after WiFi with its patents, but there was also the older case of Proxim suing just about everyone over WiFi related patents. While many companies settled (setting a bad precedent), Symbol fought back, saying not only did they not infringe, but that Proxim infringed on their patents. Last year, a judge ruled that Proxim did, indeed, infringe on Symbol's patents and now Proxim has been told to pay $26 million in damages. So, plenty of money has changed hands, lots of lawyers have made piles of money, and no actual increase in innovation has been caused.