October, 2007

Vonage Settles Patent Litigation with Klausner Technologies

Vonage Holdings Corp., the voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone service provider, settled a patent lawsuit with Klausner Technologies, a privately-held company specializing in voice-messaging technology. The settlement was announced on October 15.

Klausner had filed the suit alleging that Vonage infringed a patent related to voice-messaging. Details of the settlement were undisclosed as of the announcement.

Vonage has settled two other patent cases in the past two weeks, one of which was with Sprint Nextel Corp for $80 million. Vonage has been hit by a series of lawsuits since going public in May 2006.

Red Hat, Novell Sued for Patent Infringement

October 12, 2007 - Red Hat's Linux system and Novell's SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop and Enterprise Server allegedly infringe on three patents relating to user interfaces within multiple windows, according to a new suit filed jointly by Texas-based IP Innovation and Nevada-based Technology Licensing Corp. IP Innovation is a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp., which is primarily known for aggressively enforcing its patents related to streaming media.

Enterprise users of these Linux products are protected by indemnification clauses in their contracts that should shield them from intellectual-property litigation.

IP Innovation's three patents are entitled "User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects" and were issued in the early-to-mid 1990s.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC Sues the USPTO

October 10, 2007 - Many companies and individual inventors are unhappy with the new rules for filing patent applications, but UK-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC has actually done something about it: the company filed suit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on October 10.

Glaxo's suit alleges that the new patent laws could prove detrimental to about 100 of their pending patent applications. Under the current law, which is in effect until November 1, companies can file an unlimited number of "continuations" on the original patent application, changes which refine the scope of protection offered by the patent. Under the new laws, the number of continuations that could be filed on any given patent application would be limited to two. In order to file more than two continuations, the inventor or company would have to prove that the new claims could not have been submitted in a previous filing.

Glaxo claims that this limitation would be detrimental to their patent applications, as they often learn information that would help them strengthen their patents after the initial application is filed.