Wi-LAN Inc. today announced that it has initiated lawsuits against 22 major companies regarding Wi-LAN patents related to Wi-Fi and DSL.

The companies are: Acer Inc., Apple Inc., Atheros Communications Inc., Belkin International Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., Broadcom Corporation, Buffalo Technology (USA) Inc., Circuit City Stores, Inc., Dell Inc., D-Link Corporation, Gateway Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Infineon Technologies AG, Intel Corporation, Lenovo Group Ltd., Marvell Semiconductor Inc., Netgear Inc., Sony Corporation, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Toshiba Corporation, Westell Technologies Inc., and 2Wire Inc.

"Wi-LAN has successfully negotiated patent licensing deals with a number of companies covering a broad range of patent families and technologies," says company CEO Jim Skippen. "Our existing licensing agreements are a strong endorsement of the strength and validity of our valuable patent portfolio. While we prefer to resolve patent infringement through business discussions, we have consistently maintained that litigation was always a possibility when negotiations do not result in a license within a reasonable time."

More here from EE Times ... more (lots more) here from Slashdot ... more here from Gizmodo ... more here from Network World ... more here from BetaNews ... and the press release is here.