NTP files patent suits against AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon
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After winning a $612.5 million settlement from RIM last year, NTP is back with patent claims against the largest U.S. wireless carriers over patents for wireless e-mail.
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Vonage is getting sued--again. This time telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks says the company has violated nine patents related to its Internet phone service.
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On the same day HP execs were being grilled by a House Subcommittee, Verizon Wireless on Thursday announced it had sued 20 unnamed data brokers over fraudulent access of customer records related to HP's investigation.
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AT&amp;T filed a lawsuit against VoIP provider Vonage on Friday seeking damages for alleged patent infringement.The lawsuit comes just days after Vonage settled a patent-infringement lawsuit with telecom provider Sprint Nextel.In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, AT&amp;T alleged that Vonage wilfully infringed an AT&amp;T patent related to telephone systems that allow people to make VoIP calls using standard telephone devices.In the legal filing, AT&amp;T said it tried to reach an agreement with Vonage to license the patent, but failed, which forced the lawsuit.Vonage announced on Oct. 8 that it settled its suit with Sprint Nextel for $80 million. As part of that agreement, Vonage agreed to license VoIP patents from Sprint, including more than 100 patents covering technology for connecting calls from a traditional phone network to an IP network.Vonage is also in the process of resolving a patent infringement dispute with Verizon. Earlier this year, a court found&#160;Vonage infringed on Verizon patents&#160;and ordered an injunction that could have prevented Vonage from signing up new customers.&#160;Vonage won an injunction staying the order&#160;and is appealing the original infringement ruling. Vonage in August said it was close to rolling out workarounds for two of the three patents Verizon claimed.Vonage is one of the largest independent VoIP providers in the U.S. with nearly 2.5 million customers.
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Wireless tech heads to court again, as Motorola subsidiaries Symbol and Wireless Valley claim patent infringement.
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A federal jury on Thursday  found that Vonage Holdings Corp. , an Internet phone  service, infringed on three key patents owned by Verizon  Communications Inc.
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Japan's Fujinon Corp sued Motorola  Inc. , alleging several of Motorola's products,  including its flagship Razr models, infringed on its patents,  according to court documents on Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - The rancorous world of wireless is heating up yet again, with two subsidiaries of Motorola suing Aruba Networks, alleging the wireless LAN company infringed four patents. Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley CommunicationsÂ charge that Aruba is knowingly using their patented WLAN switch technologies and techniques for designing and managing WLANs. On Monday, they filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. The companies want a jury trial and are seeking a permanent injunction against Aruba as well as unspecified monetary damages, tripled because of willful infringement. The airwaves have become a dangerous place to do business, with a series of suits between Qualcomm and two of its mobile rivals,Â NokiaÂ andÂ Broadcom, following on the heels ofÂ NTP's litigation against Research In MotionÂ andÂ other companies. An Australian research body won an injunction against Buffalo Technology (USA)Â for WLAN patent infringement, and the development of the hotly anticipated IEEE 802.11n WLAN specification has also sparked fierce battles, though not in court. As in other fast-growing markets, litigants may see future riches at stake. Aruba makes a variety of WLAN equipment and technology for putting the gear together in large networks for enterprises and other customers. The company, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is incorporated in Delaware, according to the suit. Aruba has not yet seen the suit and has no comment, spokesman Michael Tennefoss said. All of Aruba's WLAN switch, site planning, and radio-frequency management and monitoring products infringe the patents, and they have since the company began selling its first products, said Aaron Bernstein, vice president and deputy general counsel at Symbol. The companies don't want to license the technology to Aruba, but to stop the company from using it, he said. Motorola isn't suing Aruba because the patents were issued to Symbol and Wireless Valley, which are separate legal entities wholly owned by Motorola. Wireless Valley was acquired in 2005 and Symbol earlier this year. They didn't sue Aruba until now because the WLAN switch patents weren't awarded to Symbol until early this year, Bernstein said.
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(InfoWorld) - A federal court ruled on Tuesday that struggling VoIP provider Vonage infringed on patents owned by Sprint Nextel. Jurors in the U.S. District Court in Kansas found that Vonage willfully infringed on Sprint's patents as part of its VoIP service, Vonage said. The jury awarded Sprint $69.5 million in damages, which amounts to 5 percent of Vonage's revenue during the infringing period. Vonage plans to initially ask the court to set aside the verdict, but if that fails, the company will appeal the decision. In the meantime, Vonage will also develop workarounds that don't require Sprint's patents, it said. This is the second legal blow to Vonage this year. A court found earlier this year thatÂ Vonage infringed on Verizon patents. That case came with an injunction that would have prevented Vonage from signing up new customers.Â Vonage won a stay of that injunctionÂ and is appealing the original infringement ruling. Although it's clearly bad news for Vonage to have two patent infringement rulings against it this year, the appeals could change everything, said Seth Ostrow, a partner specializing in patents in Dreier LLP. "Often there are mistakes made during various stages of a case that form the basis for a successful appeal, and that, coupled with the statistics, gives reason to think that Vonage has a significant chance of getting this changed," he said. Statistics show that patent cases often get changed on appeal, he said. In August, Vonage said it had nearly completed rolling out workarounds for two of the three patents claimed by Verizon. Still, the Verizon case alone appears to have slowed growth for the company, the largest independent VoIP provider. In its second quarter this year, Vonage added 57,000 customer lines, compared with 256,000 in the same quarter in the previous year. Vonage has said that Verizon pursued the lawsuit in an effort to eliminate a competitor. Vonage stock opened the day at $1.99 and closed at $1.20, a 33 percent drop. This story was updated on September 25, 2007
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ATLANTA -- NASCAR filed a $100 million counter claim against AT&T Inc. on Sunday, accusing the wireless provider of interfering with its exclusive sponsorship agreement with rival wireless company Nextel.
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InfoWorld - The rancorous world of wireless is heating up yet again, with two subsidiaries of Motorola suing Aruba Networks, alleging the wireless LAN company infringed four patents.
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NTP Inc, which won a $612.5 million  settlement from the maker of BlackBerry last year, has sued  four of the top U.S. mobile service providers for infringing  eight patents related to wireless e-mail.
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Cingular Wireless LLC and Verizon Wireless, the two biggest US mobile-phone services providers, have sued investigators for Hewlett-Packard Co. , alleging they used fraud to obtain billing records in a probe of boardroom leaks.
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NTP Inc., the patent-owning entity that got $612 million out of a suit against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd., has hit the nation's top four wireless carriers with similar lawsuits.
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A federal court rules that struggling VoIP provider Vonage Holdings infringed on patents owned by Sprint Nextel.
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A California-based software company has filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft over two patents that enable the creation of virtual private networks.
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Microsoft, backed by the US government and heavyweight corporations, took its patent battle with telecommunications giant AT and T to the Supreme Court, in a case that has wide implications for US firms doing business abroad.