In its Form 10-Q filing Wednesday, eBay noted that if Skype fails to resolve its dispute with Joltid through negotiation, it will face the uncertainty of litigation. Skype has begun developing a workaround to Joltid's peer-to-peer technology, but eBay warned in the filing that this is expensive and may not be successful.
In the filing, eBay acknowledged that Skype and Joltid had been involved in a dispute over the licensing terms. In March, after Skype filed a claim against Joltid in the English High Court of Justice, Joltid decided to terminate the license agreement between the two firms.
A court ruling against Skype could threaten the continued operation of the company's business as currently constructed, eBay said in the filing.
Joltid's stance is that Skype "should not possess, use or modify certain software source code and that, by doing so, and by disclosing such code in certain U.S. patent cases pursuant to orders from U.S. courts, Skype has breached the license agreement," according to the filing.
Joltid also brought a counterclaim alleging that Skype had repudiated the license agreement, infringed Joltid's copyright and misused confidential information, according to the filing.
Skype and Joltid are scheduled to go to trial in the English High Court in June 2010.