Edward Kirk
June 17th, 2008, 12:26 AM
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In the beginning of last December, Klausner Technologies announced that they held patents that the iPhone's visual voicemail <a href="http://www.iphonealley.com/news/apple-sued-over-visual-voicemail-patent-infringement" target="_blank">infringed upon</a>, and that they were suing Apple and AT&T for around $360 million. Now, nearly six and a half months later, Apple, AT&T and Klausner have finally reached a settlement.<!--break-->
"The patent litigation with Apple has been settled. The patents have been licensed to Apple," said company founder Judah Klausner.
A separate deal had also been made with AT&T. Also on the list of those involved are eBay Inc., who also reached a deal, and Comcast Corp., and Cablevision Systems Corp., who have not.
I must admit, Klausner's exercising of intellectual property rights over something so basic and rudimentary as a small notification when a user gets a message on a server seems to me to be absurd (especially given the fact that it is such a basic feature for communications technology) but the consequential actions of so many very prominent companies speaks of their definite ability to do so.
Regardless, I'm glad that mess is over.
[via <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN1626330020080616" target="_blank">Reuters UK</a>]</div>
In the beginning of last December, Klausner Technologies announced that they held patents that the iPhone's visual voicemail <a href="http://www.iphonealley.com/news/apple-sued-over-visual-voicemail-patent-infringement" target="_blank">infringed upon</a>, and that they were suing Apple and AT&T for around $360 million. Now, nearly six and a half months later, Apple, AT&T and Klausner have finally reached a settlement.<!--break-->
"The patent litigation with Apple has been settled. The patents have been licensed to Apple," said company founder Judah Klausner.
A separate deal had also been made with AT&T. Also on the list of those involved are eBay Inc., who also reached a deal, and Comcast Corp., and Cablevision Systems Corp., who have not.
I must admit, Klausner's exercising of intellectual property rights over something so basic and rudimentary as a small notification when a user gets a message on a server seems to me to be absurd (especially given the fact that it is such a basic feature for communications technology) but the consequential actions of so many very prominent companies speaks of their definite ability to do so.
Regardless, I'm glad that mess is over.
[via <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN1626330020080616" target="_blank">Reuters UK</a>]</div>