Filed under: iPhone
Apple settles Visual Voicemail lawsuit
Klausner Technology Inc., owner of a telephone answering machine patent "linking displayed data with [a] recorded audio message" settled with Apple over the use of Visual Voicemail on the iPhone, reports Macworld.
Klausner was granted the patent in 1994, and renewed it in March. As part of the settlement, Klausner is licensing the patents to Apple and AT&T. Klausner has already licensed it to Vonage, Sprint Nextel, and eBay.
The details of the settlement were not released, but Klausner had been asking for $360 million in damages.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hawkman said 5:56PM on 6-17-2008
Ugh, patent hoarders. When I rule the world, you won't get patents granted without a working implementation.
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nka said 6:43PM on 6-17-2008
@Hawkman: Straight up, this game that patent holders play is disgusting!
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eric f. said 8:57PM on 6-17-2008
Uh, yeah, steve... go play with your Zune.
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Virtuous said 12:44AM on 6-18-2008
Patent trolls must cost consumers hundreds of millions or billions of dollars annually.
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Fritz Laurel said 4:55AM on 6-18-2008
Not to mention that patents do nothing but stifle innovation and competition. The whole patent part of our society is just bad and needs to be dismantled post haste!
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Vinod Ponmanadiyil said 6:02AM on 6-18-2008
The patent concerned must have been very strong. Otherwise the Apple and AT&T would not have settled this so quickly.
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saycheese said 11:53AM on 6-18-2008
To all the iSuckups here.. grow a spine, will ya?
Would you still shout "Patents suck!" when someone rips off Apple's patents? Don't think so.
What do you iSuckups feel about Apple's patent for the "Trash Can" icon? Read about the absurdity here..
http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2003/03/04.2.shtml
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Max Howell said 12:54PM on 6-23-2008
Any of us could become patent trolls. It is a career choice for the pathetic, the untalented and the immorally greedy. Sadly I think it's clear, some of us are all of those things.
Fortunately society seems to continue to reward people who use patents in a manner that benefits us all. And yes saycheese, I'm afraid its true, Apple do use them in a generally benign manner.
Jon said 4:05PM on 6-18-2008
These broad but vague valueless software patents do nothing but weaken the US tech market. That is why other countries are taking over. A large bulk of of our research and innovation ends up going to crafty lawyers, patent trolls who do nothing to contribute to society or technology. They only feed off of it.
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