Apple faces increased lawsuit pressure over Visual Voicemail system
By Will Park on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 1:07 PM PST In Apple, Financial, iPhone
Remember that technology firm that came out of the woodwork and sued Apple over the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail feature? Well, unlike other patent-squatters in the business, Klausner Technologies actually had a pretty solid case. The firm sued Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), AT&T (NYSE: T), SimulScribe, and others over patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818, claiming that Visual Voicemail infringed on Klausner’s IP rights. The firm is seeking $360m in damages from Apple.
Well, it looks like SimulScribe has just settled with Klausner Technologies, leaving co-defendant Apple in a weaker position to defend itself against Klausner’s claims. SimulScribe has agreed to a licensing deal with Klausner Technologies.
Apple might want to just go ahead and settle with Klausner. There’s nothing like a little licensing-love to make things run a bit more smoothly. Then again, with the way Apple’s stock is headed, we can see why Steve might want to fight this battle to the bitter end.
Let’s see how this one plays out.
[Via: MacWorld UK]
