Cornell University sues AT&T, Verizon over Wi-Fi patents

By Blake Brittain

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Cornell University has sued AT&T T.N and Verizon VZ.N in Texas federal court, accusing the telecom giants of infringing two patents related to Wi-Fi standards.

The Ithaca, N.Y., university said in a pair of lawsuits filed on Tuesday that AT&T and Verizon's smartphones, routers and other products violate its patent rights in technology for improving the efficiency and signal strength of Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Spokespeople and attorneys for the university and the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaints on Wednesday.

The lawsuits said two Cornell engineering professors invented the technology described in the two patents, related to Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 wireless standards. Cornell received the patents in 2010 and 2011.

Cornell said that the companies infringe its patents by making and selling Wi-Fi-enabled devices that use the same wireless technology. The university asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and orders to stop the infringement.

The cases are Cornell University v. AT&T Inc, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:25-cv-00054 and Cornell University v. Verizon Communications Inc, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:25-cv-00055.

For Cornell: Robert Kramer, David Alberti, Sal Lim, Russell Tonkovich and Nicole Glauser of Kramer Alberti Lim & Tonkovich

For the companies: attorney information not yet available

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)

((blake.brittain@tr.com; +1 (202) 938-5713))