I'll start with the disclaimer that I am not an attorney... nor do I play one on TV...
But, a search of the US Patent & Trademark Office reveals 13 patents assigned to Sprint that deal with VoIP. (http://www.uspto.gov/) 6947411 6944150 6937869 6909690 6870857 6868081 6865398 6741695 6731735 6697097 6681116 6556826 6373930 Of particular interest are the '9690, '4150, '1695, '3930 patents. '9690 is a patent on call admission control using silence suppression to better utilize network bandwidth. Specifically, it seems to deal with a method to apply adaptive silence suppression at the customer site... presumably in the ATA. '4150 is a patent on a 'gateway' layer to be implemented between a customer and the communications network as a means of offering and controlling services offered as well as optimizing the deliver of those services. '1695 is a patent on a method to interface packet-based and circuit-switched networks. It specifically mentions SIP and other protocols and how to interface them to signaling and voice paths in a circuit-switched network. Finally, '3930 is a patent on a method to 'redirect' call setup through a third party for the purposes of service restriction or authorization. Basically it's a method of implementing pre-paid service on a packet network. The only one that seems to me that would directly apply to the * community may be the '4150 or '1695 patents. But I don't know enough about patent law to know if it would be worth their time or if they would even have a case. There *maybe* something there too with some of the prepaid modules, like AstCC, if they could argue it was hosted on a separate system. Again, I don't know enough of the specifics to make an educated guess. OK... now that I did my part to add to the FUD, maybe somebody that knows more can build on what I found. Jason -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Todd Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 3:05 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Cc: asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Sprint Nextel sueing over VoIP patents At 2:43 PM -0700 10/4/05, trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com wrote: > >Sprint Nextel is sueing vonage, voiceglo and theglobe.com for infringing >on VoIP patents. Sprint Nextel claims to have about 100 patents on VoIP >technologies. Does anyone know which ones this article is talking >about, and if so does asterisk have any of those features? > >The reason I am asking is that the article is vague, Vonage uses a >fairly standard codec set, I dont know about the others. So if its not >codecs I wonder if its something so generic that the patent would be >tossed out upon challenge. > >Anyone thinking about doing a VoIP business may want to get more info >before proceeding since they may not have the millinos vonage has to >fight this. > >http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2005/10/03/daily23 .html >-- >Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com Bret McDanel >UK +44 870 340 4605 Germany +49 801 777 555 3402 >US +1 360 207 0479 or +1 516 687 5200 >FreeWorldDialup: 635378 This perhaps is quite relevant to the Asterisk community. While I don't know the specifics about Vonage, I do know that they have been rumored to have (in the past, or present) used Asterisk in their core for some services. (Voicemail? Conference? Messages?) This, however, is not confirmed. http://www.ilocus.com/ui_dataFiles/news18aug05.htm http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2cof f=1&q=%22vonage+uses+asterisk%22&btnG=Search According to public information, Voiceglo uses IAX and Asterisk: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/2004-February/036311.ht ml http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1059204,00.html FYI: Voiceglo and theglobe.com are the same company for all intents and purposes. Therefore, I am very interested to see if this is merely co-incidental or if there is a reason that Sprint picked out two providers that use Asterisk in their core. Despite hysteria or misinformation on this (and other) lists, there is no direct information that I've seen that this is Sprint making a blanket patent lawsuit against anyone using VoIP. Perhaps this is just some specific feature that they have a legitimate patent on which has been infringed. I doubt this is a codec patent issue, nor an equipment patent issue (as previously discussed on -biz list.) Is there anyone with better detail on the lawsuit specifics able to comment? JT _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users