Those 200 iPhone-Related Patents Don't Seem To Be Stopping Patent Infringement Lawsuits

from the welcome-to-the-patent-thicket dept

When the iPhone was first announced, Steve Jobs proudly hyped up the 200 patents the company had filed around the various parts of the device. However, we were among those who wondered what the point of all those patents were -- as most of the concepts were widely known, and Apples real innovation was putting them all together in a nice usable package. And, if Steve Jobs thought that the announcement of those 200 patents would scare off patent infringement lawsuits, he was clearly mistaken. The iPhone has already been accused of patent infringement for the touchscreen and the virtual keyboard, and now Klausner Technologies has sued the company for its visual voicemail offering. If Klausner sounds familiar to you, that's because it's the company that sued both AOL and Vonage for daring to display voicemail information on a screen (yes, apparently that concept is patented). Vonage, of course, recently settled with Klausner, giving it the cash to take on a big fish like Apple. Considering Apple's notorious willingness to pay up when accused of patent infringement, even on the most ridiculous patents, this strategy probably makes sense for Klausner, but it's hard to see how it furthers the cause of innovation.

Filed Under: iphone, patent thicket, patents
Companies: apple, klausner

Vonage Settles AT&T Patent Suit; Anyone Else Want To Squeeze Free Money Out Of Vonage?

from the just-find-a-voip-patent-and-sue dept

The various patent lawsuits against Vonage have been a perfect example of almost everything that's wrong with the patent system. Vonage was the clear leader in this space -- being the first to successfully get this type of product to a widespread audience, even as the idea had been talked for years. Vonage's success had nothing to do with its technology acumen. The concepts behind VoIP services were widely known and widely discussed. The problem facing the space had always been an inability by any company to package it up in a way that people would buy it. Vonage figured that out. And for it, it got sued into oblivion by all the companies who were unable or unwilling to figure out. Just the fact that there were so many patents covering the basic concepts of "VoIP" (even when there was so much prior art) should have been a warning sign that perhaps most of those patents were bogus. However, once Vonage's investors started pressuring Vonage to just settle the cases, things only got worse. Vonage settled with Verizon and Sprint and even with some small patent holder very few people had heard of. With Vonage quickly trying to settle any such lawsuit, you can bet that plenty of companies went hunting through their patent portfolios, looking to see if they had anything related to VoIP which they could use to sue Vonage over. AT&T quickly found something and sued Vonage, knowing the company would quickly cough up some money. And, cough it up, it did. Vonage has agreed to pay AT&T $39 million. Anyone else have a VoIP patent? Might as well sue while Vonage's wallet is wide open...

Filed Under: patent thicket, patents, voip
Companies: at&t, sprint, verizon, vonage

Vonage Loses Yet Another Patent Case

from the not-looking-good dept

Vonage has already had enough trouble actually making their business profitable without having to worry about a barrage of patent lawsuits over highly questionable patents. But thanks to a patent system that approves a tremendous number of overly broad patents on obvious ideas, that's what you get. Already appealing a similar case from Verizon, a jury has found Vonage guilty of violating a bunch of Sprint patents. Juries will often find in favor of the patent holder, so this isn't much of a surprise. Vonage will most certainly appeal and the case is far from over. However, given how much effort the company needs to put into fighting these patents, the company may not be able to survive. The really sad thing is that the technology behind VoIP has almost nothing to do with Vonage's success. There were a ton of companies that had tried and failed to make popular VoIP plays before (and after) Vonage. What Vonage did was actually innovate: taking the basic idea that everyone knew about, and turning it into an offering that people wanted to buy. That's where Verizon, Sprint and other incumbents failed. For them to come back afterwards, and claim patent infringement is simply sour grapes. They were unable (and unwilling) to create the services that people wanted -- and now they want to shut down the company that actually did innovate -- and they're likely to succeed. That's not how the patent system is supposed to work.

Filed Under: patent thicket, patents, voip
Companies: sprint, vonage

Sprint Claims Vonage Wouldn't Exist Without Sprint's Patents

from the stop-laughing dept

Already facing possible shutdown and huge fines from Verizon over some VoIP patents, Vonage is apparently facing a similar threat from Sprint as well. The case was filed nearly two years ago, but it finally is underway, with Sprint making the ridiculous claim that without Sprint's patents, Vonage wouldn't exist. We've already gone through this with Verizon, but there's a ton of prior art on VoIP offerings -- and almost all of these patents seem overly broad and quite speculative. Lots of different folks all figured out how VoIP could work at about the same time (suggesting that the concept was the natural progression of the technology, which isn't something that's supposed to receive patent protection). Vonage's real innovation was in figuring out how to package and market the service -- something that neither Sprint nor Verizon did. Both companies are now simply trying to shut down a rival who out-innovated them in the market. That's not what the patent system is designed to do, and it's a blatant abuse of the patent system by both telcos to claim that Vonage somehow "stole" anything from them.

Filed Under: patent thicket, patents, voip
Companies: sprint, verizon, vonage