Apple and AT&T sued over iPhone’s Visual Voicemail technology - another patent infringement case
By Will Park on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 1:35 pm PST In AT&T, Announcements, Apple, Financial, Technologies, iPhone
Well, this isn’t just another patent infringement case against the iPhone. Whereas all previous lawsuits basically rested on the shakiest of ground, the latest lawsuit brought against Apple and AT&T by Klausner Technologies has some merit. The firm has alleged that the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail feature infringes on Klausner’s U.S. Patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818.
The lawsuit was filed against Apple and AT&T for offering the patented technology to iPhone customers and is seeking damage and future royalties that could amount to $360 million. Outlined in the lawsuit is Klauser’s claim that AT&T and Apple have infringed their intellectual property by giving iPhone users a method to selectively listen to messages in the voicemail system - Visual Voicemail. And, it seems that the lawsuit has some firm ground to stand upon.
Klausner Technologies has already successfully established their intellectual property rights in previous litigation against Time Warner AOL for the AOL Voicemail system. The firm was able to show that their patents were valid and landed a licensing agreement with Time Warner AOL.
“We have litigated this patent successfully on two prior occasions,” said Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner, counsel for Klausner. “With the signing of each new licensee, we continue to receive further confirmation of the strength of our visual voicemail patents.”
And, to add more legitimacy to the lawsuit, the firm has filed similar lawsuits against Comcast Corporation, Cablevision Systems Corp., and Skype for infringing on Klausner patents by allowing users to selectively listen to voicemail messages.
Good luck, Apple and AT&T (not to mention all those other firms currently under fire). We’re usually quick to dismiss frivolous lawsuits, but this one sounds like it’s of the valid-variety. A settlement might just be your best bet.
We should note that Klausner Technologies granted an OEM license to Apple to cover the Apple Newton PDA when it was launched all those years ago. Interesting.
[Via: MacWorld]
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