In this letter, a novel compact inverted-F antenna with dual-band property for WLAN applications is presented. It comes with a C-shaped radiator and two meander shorting strips, which only occupy a small size of 35 (L)3 (W) mm to be easily embedded inside a laptop computer as an internal antenna. This design can radiate with two operating bands covering 2.38-2.54 and 4.99-5.96 GHz. By properly forming these two shorting strips, the effects due to the antenna near the external casing can be suitably tackled for actual application. Nearly omnidirectional coverage to enhance the communication quality can be obtained with our design. Therefore, the proposed antenna with a compact size is well suitable for WLAN operation in a laptop computer.