Apple Slapped with iPhone Patent Suit
Klausner is seeking $360 million in damages and future royalties from the companies, alleging that Apple infringed on two patents it holds with its "visual voicemail" feature on the iPhone. Visual voicemail allows users to see who left voicemail messages and to listen to them in any order they choose. ATandT is being sued for selling the iPhone and visual voicemail.
"The iPhone violates Klausner's intellectual property rights by allowing the user to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone's inbox display," the company said in a statement.
The suits were filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, and were just two of many Klausner filed on Monday. Klausner also hit up eBay's Skype division, Comcast and Cablevision Systems alleging that their VoIP products and services infringe on a patent it holds. Klausner is seeking $300 million in damages and future royalties from the companies.
Klausner has successfully defended its voicemail patents in the past. Vonage settled a dispute with Klausner for an undisclosed sum. In April 2006, it settled another with Time Warner's America Online division.
Apple does not allow resellers to resell the iPhone, but it does plan to launch a developer kit to allow third-party software vendors to create applications for the iPhone in 2008.