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Apple Hit with iPhone Visual Voicemail Suit
by , 1:35 PM EST, December 3rd, 2007
Apple is facing a $360M patent lawsuit from Klausner Technologies who claim ownership of two visual voicemail patents, according to Thomson Financial on Monday.
Klausner Technologies said that they have already provided visual voicemail technologies to Time Warner's AOL and Vonage. Previously, Klausner has been successful in litigating the protection of the two patents.
The filing was in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The California law firm Dovel & Luner is representing Klausner.
Observer Comments
Gee, what a shocker. They filed their lawsuit in Eastern Texas. I know nothing about their patent or the lawsuit, but the fact that they filed in that jurisdiction just smells fishy. Like they their claim is weak enough that they needed the well known bias of that court in order to win their case.
QuoteGuest wrote:
Gee, what a shocker. They filed their lawsuit in Eastern Texas. I know nothing about their patent or the lawsuit, but the fact that they filed in that jurisdiction just smells fishy. Like they their claim is weak enough that they needed the well known bias of that court in order to win their case.
Guest - You have a great patent that is making you money. Someone violates it. You want to take them to court so you hire a good attorney. That attorney says you'll get a more sympathetic hearing in the Texas courts and recommends doing just that.
So you override your good attorney's advice? Doubtful since you may lose the attorney. Also in any sort of contest, don't you want to take every advantage you have at your disposal?
Like it or not, it makes good business sense.
I have to say that the actual patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818 have been around for 15 years and 13 years and exactly describe the behaviour of the iPhone...
Also Klausner Technologies:
"was founded by Judah Klausner, the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer. Apple’s original groundbreaking PDA, the Newton, was, in fact, covered under an OEM patent license granted twenty years ago by Judah Klausner under his landmark US Patent 4,117,542."
So, it and the patents shouldn't be news to Apple!
For once, I actually agree with the patent holder in this case!
--
Dick
Klausner owns a bunch of voicemail related patents. Vonage settled a suit with them in October over voicemail technologies. They settled with AOL Time Warner on a voicemail suit as well. Apple will have to settle on this one. It's a case with precedent, and a solidly proven set of patents.
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