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By stan_sipple

Sprint/Nextel files new patent infringement lawsuits against voice-over-internet protocol providers. KC Business Journal.
Sprint Nextel Corp., fresh off a $69.5 million verdict against Vonage Holdings for patent infringement in September, is suing four other companies on similar grounds. Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) said Thursday that it filed four suits in federal court in Kansas against NuVox Communications Inc., Broadvox Holdings LLC, Cape Girardeau-based Big River Telephone Co. and Paetec Communications Inc. -- all smaller telecommunications or Voice-over-Internet-Protocol companies -- for infringing on as many as six of Sprint Nextel's voice-over-packet patents.
These are the same patents that Sprint Nextel successfully sued Vonage and Voiceglo Communications for in 2005. Voiceglo settled with Sprint Nextel in 2006, and the $69.5 million verdict against Vonage transformed into an $80 million agreement between the two companies to license Sprint Nextel's VOP service portfolio for Vonage's use. In the suit filed Thursday, Sprint Nextel seeks monetary damages and asks that the four companies stop infringing on its patents. "Sprint has invested a great deal in the technology covered by its VOP portfolio," Harley Ball, vice president of intellectual property for Sprint Nextel, said in a written statement. "We cannot stand by and allow others to use Sprint's innovations and discoveries to compete with Sprint and its strategic partners." Representatives from each of the companies named in the lawsuit couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Sprint Nextel has corporate headquarters in Reston, Va., and operational headquarters in Overland Park.

Full post as published by Showmeblawgs on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).