Sprint sues for VoIP patent infringements

 Sprint has also gone to court, claiming 15 infringements of their patented VoIP technology by several small providers, Nuvox Communications, BroadVOX Holdings, Big River Telephone and Paetec Communications. The litigation comes after Sprint won an $80 million settlement against Vonage last year for breaches of the same patents, but rather than seek to negotiate Sprint has resorted directly to litigation and is seeking both an injunction and damages.

The litigation also follows similarly successful claims by telco giants Verizon and AT&T against Vonage and has highlighted growing resentment within the IP sector at  Von age's $240 million capitulation over the claims. What alternatives Vonage had is arguable, but in the case of Sprint Rich Tehrani from TMC has observed many of these companies preceded Sprints deployment of VoIP--and now face potential bankruptcy if Sprint forces its patent issue through the courts.

Tehrani is an original VoIP evangelist and has called on the industry to come together to fight against the telcos. He says many in the industry claim the patents the telcos used against Vonage were based on technologies that existed before the patents were filed for.

More precisely the real problem is that many of the patents claimed are for broad concepts like "translating IP addresses to phone numbers" rather than specific technologies. The reform legislation to change much of the nonsense that now pervades the U.S. patent process was again stalled in the Senate late last year, but has been listed again for consideration this February. The danger is in an attempt to get the legislation passed it will be further watered down, leaving the system not much better than when the legislative reform process began back in 2003 

For More:
- Sprint new Cash strategy Article
[1]- Summary of the history of Patent Reform PDF [2]

Related articles:
Vonage faces Sprint suit Report [3]
Vonage learns just how tough the telcos can be Report [4]