Australia's scientific research agency has reached a multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement in the US over the use of its wireless internet technology which underpins Wi-Fi platforms worldwide.

The government-run Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Csiro) said the settlement for the Wireless local area networking (WLAN) patent was worth more than A$220m ($229m).

WLAN technology, commonly known as Wi-Fi, was invented by Csiro scientists in the 1990s, and is now used in over three billion computers, smartphones and other internet-ready devices around the world.