802.11 technology has its origins in a 1985 ruling by the US Federal Communications Commission that released the ISM band for unlicensed use. In 1991, NCR Corporation with AT&T Corporation invented the precursor to 802.11 intended for use in cashier systems. The first wireless products were under the name WaveLAN.
Vic Hayes has been called the "father of Wi-Fi" by some, due to his involvement in negotiating the initial standards within the IEEE while chairing the workgroup.
A large number of patents by many companies are used in 802.11 standard. In 1992 and 1996, Australian organization CSIRO obtained patents for a method later used in Wi-Fi to "unsmear" the signal. In April 2009, 14 tech companies agreed to pay CSIRO $250 million for infringements on CSIRO patents. This led to Wi-Fi being attributed as an Australian invention, though this has been the subject of some controversy. CSIRO won a further $220 million settlement for Wi-Fi patent infringements in 2012 with global firms in the United States required to pay the CSIRO licensing rights estimated to be worth an additional $1 billion in royalties.
In 1999, the Wi-Fi Alliance was formed as a trade association to hold the Wi-Fi trademark under which most products are sold.
The key technologies behind Wi-Fi were developed by the radioastronomer John O'Sullivan as a by-product in a research project, "a failed experiment to detect exploding mini black holes the size of an atomic particle".
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