NTP sues wireless carriers for patent infringement
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NTP Inc, which last year won a $612.5  million settlement from the maker of Blackberry, has sued  several leading wireless companies for patent infringement,  according to court papers.
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update A federal appeals court affirmed that Research In Motion has infringed on holding company NTP&#39;s patents but can continue selling its products in the United States pending a district court&#39;s decision.
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Verizon Wireless customers are suing the mobile service provider, claiming that it is selling a cell phone with fewer Bluetooth short range radio features than they expected, the plaintiffs' lawyer said on Thursday
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Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc   said on Tuesday that two of its subsidiaries had sued  Aruba Networks Inc  for infringement of patents  involving short-range wireless network technologies.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint against a company that owns patents to a widely used Ethernet standard, saying the patent owner was attempting to collect huge license fees despite a prior commitment to the contrary.The settlement with Negotiated Data Solutions, or N-Data, will protect computer users from higher prices and ensure competition, the FTC said in a news release.N-Data, in 2003, had obtained two Ethernet patents from Vertical Networks, a spin-off of National Semiconductor. N-Data attempted to collect larger patent license fees than National Semiconductor had negotiated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standards body, back in 1994, the FTC said.National promised the IEEE that if the group adopted a standard based on National&#39;s NWay technology, National would offer one-time licenses of US$1,0000 per company to computer manufacturers and sellers of products using the IEEE standard. But N-Data and Vertical Networks had begun collecting license fees &quot;far in excess&quot; of $1,000 per company, according to the FTC complaint.N-Data obtained the patents knowing about National&#39;s commitment, and realizing the computer industry had become committed to the standard, the FTC said. N-Data refused to comply with National&#39;s commitment, and it began demanding royalties after it became expensive and difficult for the industry to switch to another standard, the FTC said in its complaint.The settlement bars N-Data from enforcing the patents unless it has first offered the patent license based on the terms offered in 1994.In addition to higher prices, consumers would be hurt by N-Data because the company&#39;s actions would cast doubt on the reliability of standards-setting agreements, the FTC said. &quot;The cost of ignoring this particularly pernicious problem is too high,&quot; the commission majority wrote.Vertical Networks, which ceased operations after it turned the patent over to N-Data, had estimated that more than 70 percent of the world&#39;s Ethernet port shipments used the NWay Ethernet patents. In early 2002, Vertical Networks set letters to more than 60 companies demanding additional licensing fees, according to the FTC complaint.NWay technology allows two devices at opposite ends of a LAN link to exchange information and automatically configure themselves to optimize their communication, a process sometimes called autonegotiation. Standardizing on a single autonegotiation technology allowed devices made by different manufacturers to work with one another and with different generations of Ethernet equipment.N-Data, based in Chicago, didn&#39;t immediately respond to a request for comments on the FTC settlement.The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the settlement. N-Data violated federal law by engaging in unfair methods of competition, the FTC said.FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras voted against the settlement, saying the majority didn&#39;t establish an unfair method of competition. &quot;The novel use of our consumer protection authority to protect large corporate members of a standard-setting organization is insupportable,&quot; she wrote in her dissent.
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A patent infringement lawsuit filed by AT&amp;T against voice-over-IP telephony provider-Vonage has been settled, Vonage said late Friday.The settlement brings an unusually speedy end to&#160;the lawsuit filed by AT&amp;T on Oct. 17. It alleged Vonage wilfully infringed an AT&amp;T patent related to telephone systems that allow people to make VOIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) calls using standard telephone devices. A breakdown in talks between the two companies over the issue led to the lawsuit, AT&amp;T said&#160;at the time.Less than a month later, on Nov. 7, the two companies said they had&#160;tentatively agreed to a settlement. At that time Vonage said it would pay AT&amp;T around $39 million under the terms of the settlement.Final terms were not disclosed on Friday when, in a brief statement, Vonage said the dispute had been settled.Vonage previously&#160;settled a patent suit with Verizon&#160;for $80 million to $120 million, depending on the results of its appeal of a court ruling on two patents, and with Sprint Nextel for $80 million. As part of the Sprint Nextel deal Vonage agreed to license more than 100 patents covering technology for connecting calls from a traditional phone network to an IP network. The Verizon settlement came after a court found Vonage had infringed upon the carrier&#39;s patents.&#160;
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NTP Inc, which last year won a $612.5  million settlement from the maker of Blackberry, has sued four  of the top U.S. mobile service providers for infringing eight  patents related to wireless e-mail.
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Certicom, a vendor of encryption tools, has filed a lawsuit claiming that Sony's use of the AACS and DTCP content protection technologies infringes on two U.S. patents.
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Net phone company says it didn't copy Verizon's patents, but the telecommunications giant says harm has been done and its VoIP rival must pay.
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Motorola's latest move against its rival is a lawsuit.
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(InfoWorld) - A California-based software company has filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft over two patents that enable the creation of virtual private networks. VirnetX, a company that builds software for secure communications, claims Microsoft is infringing on two of its patents, according to a press statement by the company, which is based in Scotts Valley, California. One of the patents relates to establishing a secure communication link or VPN, while the other is for a method and system of transparently creating a VPN, the company said. VirnetX is seeking damages from Microsoft as well as an injunction against the company from using the patented technologies. Law firm McDermott Will & Emery is handling the case for VirnetX. VirnetX CEO and President Kendall Larsen did not return a call seeking comment on Thursday. Microsoft could not be reached immediately for comment through its public relations firm Thursday.
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A US appeals court issued a mixed ruling this week in a patent dispute between Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry devices, and NTP.
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Aruba Networks&#160;countersued two divisions of Motorola&#160;Wednesday, adding a new twist to a wireless LAN (local area network) patent-infringement case that affects some of the biggest vendors in the business.
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The US Court of Appeals has ruled that Lawsuits in Motion - aka Research in Motion - did indeed violate patents owned by intellectual property holding company NTP.
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The wireless carrier's lawsuit is aimed at those responsible for obtaining the phone records of a CNET News.com reporter in an HP probe.
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Nokia, the world's top cell phone  maker, has filed a patent counter-suit against Qualcomm Inc in  a Texas court, seeking damages and an injunction against the  U.S. chip maker.
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Microsoft Corp. presented oral arguments Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-year-old patent lawsuit filed by AT&amp;T Inc. whose outcome could require U.S. software companies to pay fines for patent-infringing software assembled in other countries.