Sprint Corp. has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against three VoIP service providers: Vonage Holdings Corp., Voiceglo Holdings Inc. and theglobe.com Inc., the parent company of Voiceglo. The suit was filed in the U. S. District Court for the District of Kansas.
According to Sprint, the suit charges that the three companies have “willfully infringed” on seven patents relating to “voice-over-packet technology developed by Sprint Nextel.”
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent the companies from using the alleged Sprint Nextel technology and also seeks unspecified monetary damages.
A Sprint statement described the patents as protecting “a series of innovations that enable the processing and delivery of packetized voice and data communications, including voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications.” A Sprint spokesperson said seven patents were involved, but, when asked to provide a description of the technologies involved or make an executive available to describe them, the spokesperson said, “We can’t comment at all, because we are in the middle of a lawsuit.”
Edward Cespedes, president of Voiceglo, said the company had not yet been served with the lawsuit, but had heard details from press contacts.
Although the Sprint announcement of the lawsuit mentions only Vonage and Voiceglo, authoritative sources tell New Telephony that the technology used by the two companies would be virtually identical to the VoIP systems deployed by most VoIP service providers, such as 8x8 Inc., AT&T and Cablevision Systems Corp.
When asked whether Sprint had notified other VoIP service providers of patent violations or had made any patent-royalty agreements with them, the spokesperson said, “We are declining to comment.”
A spokesperson for AT&T also declined to comment on whether or not the company had been approached about patent violations.
Vonage also did not discuss the lawsuit, with a spokesperson saying only, “We are reviewing the details but feel it is without merit.”
On the day the suit was announced by Sprint, Voiceglo’s Cespedes commented, Sprint is acting very interesting. First, to publicize a lawsuit before all parties are served is unusual. We believe it has no merit, and we believe that strongly and are prepared to let the courts decide, if that’s the way Sprint wants to do it.”
Cespedes said his company was contacted first by a law firm representing Sprint about a year ago. “They contacted us with so many patents that they felt we might be violating that it took up a whole CD-ROM,” he says. Voiceglo responded that it did not feel it was violating any patents.
“We said we are certainly not going to let you come in and look at our technology,” Cespedes continues. “If they want to go into court, under the watchful eye of the court we will let them look at it. That is important, because it is unique technology, and they don’t have it.”
Indeed, Sprint is the only major incumbent that does not yet have a consumer VoIP offering. In the spring of 2005, financial press and blog reports linked the company with an effort to buy Vonage, though neither company confirmed the reports. The Sprint action comes at a time when Vonage is widely believed to be on the brink of announcing its initial public offering, though that company has not confirmed or denied the rumors.
The refusal by Sprint to provide even minimal details of the patents it believes are being violated also is unusual. When a company takes action on a patent violation, it usually provides some indication of the technologies involved.
Cespedes observes that his company’s services are offered using a soft client on a PC while Vonage uses an ATA appliance. “That’s probably why they chose these two companies, because we represent the whole spectrum [of consumer VoIP services],” he says.
Incumbent telcos are seeing increasing competition from both mobile and VoIP service providers. “These guys are in trouble, but it’s not like they will go gently into that good night,” says Cespedes, adding, “And I would not be surprised if they would offer to buy someone else. Give me a call. I hold no grudges.”
