The Washington Research Foundation is sueing Nokia, Samsung and Matsushita-owned Panasonic for violating a patent for Bluetooth technology, potentially putting the free wireless standard at risk. The Washington Research Foundation markets technology from the University of Washington, is seeking damages from the three mobile-phone makers for using a radio frequency receiver technology without paying royalties, according to court papers obtained. Edwin Suominen, a University of Washington scientist, was awarded a patent in 1999 for "simplified high-frequency broadband tuner and tuning method."Bluetooth was invented as a wire replacement by Ericsson engineer Jaap Haartsen in the mid 1990s and developed by engineers at Ericsson and four other companies that made it available at no cost through the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

Bluetooth was given away by Ericsson and others to create a global wireless standard to connect mobile phones, laptops, headsets and other electronic gadgets wirelessly. Since the first standard was set in 1998 it has become hugely popular, and hundreds of millions of devices a year are produced with Bluetooth capability.