Apple has been forced to pay up to use the iPhone's visual voice mail feature.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Apple has settled a patent-infringement lawsuit over the visual voice mail system used in the iPhone by signing a license for the technology in question.
Klausner Technologies sued Apple and AT&T last December over the visual voice mail feature inside the iPhone, which lets you select and listen to voice mail from a list of messages, just like an e-mail in-box. Reuters reports that Apple, AT&T, and eBay are all now licensees to Klausner's technology, although financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
AOL and Vonage had already signed deals with Klausner before it came after Apple and AT&T, so there was a pretty good chance it would have eventually prevailed if the case had come to trial. Reuters said Klausner's next targets are Comcast and Cablevision.
Apple has been sued for patent infringement over the iPhone's visual voice mail feature.
Apple has been sued over the iPhone's visual voice mail feature.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Klausner Technologies announced Monday that it has filed suit against the company in everyone's favorite rocket docket, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Klauser is claiming that the visual voice mail feature infringes on two patents that are said to cover the iPhone's method of selectively listening to voice mail messages rather than in the order in which they were received.
Unlike the other inane iPhone lawsuits filed since the device made its debut in June, Apple might have to take this one a little more seriously. Klausner has already won cases against AOL and Vonage asserting the patents in question here, and is asking for $360 million in royalties and damages.
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