Skip to main content

iPod/iPhone > News

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 Apple sued $360 million over Visual Voicemail

Apple's iPhone attracts yet more court action

Jonny Evans

  • Email to a friend
  • Print this article
  • Bookmark this page
  • RSS feed

Apple and AT&T have been hit with a $360 million lawsuit over the iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature.

A company called Klausner Technologies has filed a patent lawsuit under its visual voicemail patents, claiming damages and future royalties estimated at $360 million.

Question of the day!

Mark Hattersley
Editor in Chief

Do you use Adobe Photoshop with a Wacom tablet?

Question of the day!

Do you use Adobe Photoshop with a Wacom tablet?

% of Macworld readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

How does a Wacom tablet improve the Photoshop experience?

124 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @TabletChat

paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

Yes. I usually put them up on my #deviantart account for feedback on how to improve.RT @spialelo

The lawsuit asserts that Apple's iPhone Visual Voicemail infringes Klausner Technologies' US Patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818. The company claims to have successfully licensed these patents to various other companies, including for AOL, Vonage and others - though its licensing of technology to Vonage required a successful litigation in 2006.

The iPhone violates Klausner's intellectual property rights by allowing users to selectively retrieve voice messages using the iPhone's inbox display, the company claims.

The suit was filed by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner in a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. "We have litigated this patent successfully on two prior occasions," said Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner, counsel for Klausner Technologies. "With the signing of each new licensee, we continue to receive further confirmation of the strength of our visual voicemail patents."

Klausner Technologies describes itself as founded by Judah Klausner: "the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer". Apple's original ground-breaking PDA, the Newton, was, in fact, covered under an OEM patent license granted by Judah Klausner over twenty years ago under his landmark US Patent 4,117,542.

Apple does not comment on pending litigation.

Email A Friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:



PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

<<prev article | back to news index | next article>>

Latest News


More news...