Skype Hit By Another Lawsuit as IDT's Net2Phone Files Patent Infringement Suit

[Kristijntje]

Newark-based internet telephony company, Net2Phone has taken on eBay and its subsidiary peer-to-peer VoIP provider Skype in a lawsuit, alleging that Skype has infringed its patent for the placing of calls over the net.

The law suit, filed in the US District court of Newark, alleges that Skype infringed a patent filed by Net2Phone under US Patent Class 704, which broadly covers data processing encompassing speech signal processing, linguisitics, language translation, and audio compression/decompression.

Like other law suits filed recently against big name companies with deep pockets, the Net2Phone suit is going for broke, seeking damages and an injunction against further infringement, which would basically mean shutting the Skype service down...

full article: http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4510/53/

[xppman]

[mandy]

The Net2Phone patent in question was granted in August 2000.  US Patent 6,108,704:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,108,704.PN.&OS=PN/6,108,704&RS=PN/6,108,704

Point-to-point internet protocol

Abstract

A point-to-point Internet protocol exchanges Internet Protocol (IP) addresses between processing units to establish a point-to-point communication link between the processing units through the Internet. A first point-to-point Internet protocol includes the steps of (a) storing in a database a respective IP address of a set of processing units that have an on-line status with respect to the Internet; (b) transmitting a query from a first processing unit to a connection server to determine the on-line status of a second processing unit; and © retrieving the IP address of the second unit from the database using the connection server, in response to the determination of a positive on-line status of the second processing unit, for establishing a point-to-point communication link between the first and second processing units through the Internet. A second point-to-point Internet protocol includes the steps of (a) transmitting an E-mail signal, including a first IP address, from a first processing unit; (b) processing the E-mail signal through the Internet to deliver the E-mail signal to a second processing unit; and © transmitting a second IP address to the first processing unit for establishing a point-to-point communication link between the first and second processing units through the Internet.

[mandy]

Skype and the telecoms...

... the telephone boys loathe and abominate the internet.

But in the past few days, a silver lining has suddenly appeared in the telecoms' cloud. A company called Net2Phone has filed a lawsuit against Skype, alleging that the runaway upstart has infringed VoIP patents it holds. In the ordinary course of events, one would immediately suspect that the plaintiff was a 'patent troll' - ie, a small organisation trying to blackmail a bigger firm using an intellectual property claim as its weapon.

But those who know the business say Net2Phone was offering VoIP services long before Skype was conceived, and that the infringement claim looks serious. If this turns out to be the case, then Skype - and its owners eBay - may be about to discover that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

full article: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/...39,00.html