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Three of the US' top carriers are the latest to be slapped with patent lawsuits by Australian science agency CSIRO. The company has engaged in a series of legal actions over its Wi-Fi patents since 2005, and has settled with some high profile defendants, such as Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft - giving it funds and confidence to go after new targets. The latest are Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

CSIRO, Australia's top scientific research agency, has filed the latest lawsuits in the US District Court in Texas, though none of the three cellcos would comment. This is a lucrative business - the agency gained about $205m in royalties in the year to June 2009, largely because of a massive out of court settlement, with a group of 14 vendors including Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Toshiba and HP.

However, it is still fighting with others, such as Sony, Lenovo, Marvell and Acer. According to CSIRO's annual report, this settlement helped turn its budgeted deficit of $34.2m in that period into a profit of $122m. It now claims 161 active patent licensees, many connected to the patent issued in 1996, which it says is included in all 802.11 Wi-Fi products.

This is the first time the body has targeted retailers, rather than manufacturers, of Wi-Fi equipment. Nigel Poole, executive director in charge of commercialization at CSIRO, told The Australian: "There's a legal strategy here that has been thought through very carefully and to a lay person it looks like a pincer movement. You've got court action

Broadcom and Atheros have countersued CSIRO on the behalf of the WLan industry to have the patent declared invalid.

CSIRO says its proceeds from royalties are invested in new research, and presumably that could lead to new patents and licensing claims. This week, the body said it has developed a new wireless broadband technology that could make WiMAX and LTE "obsolete". In the first instance, this was created to deliver broadband wirelessly to the 10% of Australians who will not be covered by fiber under the national broadband plan. But the body could also look to include its invention in more broadly adopted platforms and standards.

Dr Ian Opperman, director of CSIRO's ICT Center, said both WiMAX and LTE were "flawed solutions" that required unwieldy infrastructure to deploy. His alternative promises speeds of at least 12Mbps (the minimum required by the Australian national broadband project) using existing broadcast infrastructure. It refocuses an analog TV signal to support wireless broadband and will be trialled in rural Tasmania from September.

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