Patent Lawsuit Targets and Sues Google Talk
On Friday a company that holds patents on the way voice over IP (VoIP) calls are placed said that it was suing Google over its use of certain technologies within the Google Talk instant message application.
Based on estimates of e four-year-long fight to win concessions from Google the company estimates that damages resulting from the case could go upto as much as $5 billion.
RTI president Jerry Weinberger claims that the company does not usually sue other businesses in order to get them to pay up for their patents. Instead, it usually asks for a one-time $5 million fee to cover licensing.
Weinberger says that in the case of Google, “every once in a while we run into utter arrogance.”
The claim of not suing companies to force payment is not completely true, however; the company has a history of only going after larger corporations using its patents.
Mitel Networks is involved in a $945 million suit with RTI, and Alcatel has been sued for $1.155 billion. Hello Direct, GN Netcom and GN have also been sued, but they settled with RTI privately. Also being sued are Cablevision and Vonage, however details of those suits were not available.
Over the past 15 years as many as 25 companies have been sued, although RTI has effectively negotiated deals with over 700 others. In all, the company has netted billions through licensing alone and billions more through litigation.
Some of these companies include Yahoo, Microsoft and Verizon, and negotiations are underway with AOL and eBay over its Skype offering.
Earlier this week, Mark Evans, a Canadian blogger and writer for the Canadian National Post, took RTI to task in his Web log.
Calling for a review into the broad patents that the USPTO awards inventors, he said “The key issue is whether these broad patents will deter
innovation if patent ‘trolls’ can easily solicit licensing fees out of companies developing new technology.”
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