AT&T, Apple Involved in 'Visual Voicemail' Patent Case

【BetaNews report】Klausner Technologies has sued AT&T and Apple, claiming that the signature feature in their product, the iPhone, infringes on two of its patents.

Since there are few relevant patent laws to handle many infringement cases before they go to trial, Klausner Technologies has successfully sued two other companies that registered this patent later, including Internet IP company Vonage and AOL, which have agreements with this company.

According to the lawsuit submitted to the district court in the eastern region of Tennessee, Klausner Technologies is demanding approximately $460 million in damages and future royalty payments. It also filed for a total of $300 million in royalties from Comcast, Cablevision, and Skype, a subsidiary of eBay.

All defendants were sued for infringing on Klausner's voice mail patent. Among the defendants aside from the iPhone, all their systems allow users to select Voice mails displayed on the screen - a feature that enables users to view their voicemail list, decide which messages to listen to, and then directly jump to these messages without having to listen to previous ones.

Klausner's legal advisor, Greg Dove, believes, "We have already won in two previous lawsuits, and with each contract signed, we will continue to further strengthen the protection of our Visual Voicemail patent."

Klausner's series of lawsuits has led people to call it the "next NTP," as NTP was involved in the RIM case for many years, finally settling in March 2006 for $612.5 million in compensation.

Technology scholar Larry Dignan is one of those who criticized Klausner, accusing it of being a disreputable patent holding company. He translated: Hey, it has succeeded twice, so why not make more money? These things add up, he wrote in a blog on Monday.