Klausner Technologies Sues Over iPhone

Klausner Technologies, a company founded by Judah Klausner who invented the PDA, is suing Apple (AAPL), AT&T (T) over iPhone’s visual voicemail patents. For good measure Klausner is suing Comcast (CMCSA), Cablevision (CVC) and eBay’s (EBAY) Skype.

Sound familiar?

It should Klausner almost sounds like NTP, which sued Research in Motion and won a patent infringement suit for a cool $612.5 million. If it worked for NTP it’s really hard to blame Klausner for giving the court system a go. After all, Klausner already settled with Time Warner’s AOL and Vonage.

The patents in question are U.S. Patent 5,572,576 and 5,283,818.

First up, Apple.

Klausner says it wants damages and future royalties of about $360 million from Apple. In a statement Monday Klausner says:

Klausner Technologies was founded by Judah Klausner, the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer. Apple’s original groundbreaking 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.

The iPhone violates Klausner’s intellectual property rights by allowing users to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone’s inbox display. Apple has called iPhone’s Visual Voicemail “one of the greatest advances in the history of mankind … without question.”

Cut and paste that lawsuit and then run over to AT&T for another $360 million. After all, AT&T is selling the iPhone.

Klausner is also seeking $300 million in damages and future royalties from Comcast, Cablevision and eBay.

In a statement, Klausner says:

Cablevision’s Optimum Voicemail, Comcast’s Digital Voice Voicemail and eBay’s Skype Voicemail each violate Klausner’s intellectual property rights by allowing users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays.

Best excerpt:

The suit has been 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.”

Translation: Hey it worked twice already why not extract more cash. These things add up.

Comments

[frankz00:]

I was just telling my friends how much I love my Klausner cell phone....

Oh wait! They don't even make products! They don't even have a website!!!

What are they suing for and why did it take them until after the iPhone came out to realize they had something special???

2007 Dec 03 05:43 PM

[Stuff and N...:]

Look up the two referenced patents - neither one of them applies. Both state, and I quote:

"...These codes or numbers are decoded by means of the caller entering DTMF signals into the telephone which are recognized, recorded and processed by the [Telephone Answering Device]. ..."

Since an iPhone doesn't require the caller to enter DTMF signals - it gets its information from callerID info - neither patent is applicable. Nice try, but bogus claim. I don't know what the specific claims were against the other companies that Klaussner rolled, but it since iPhones DO NOT rely on callers to enter DTMF signals, the Klaussner claim loses. As I read it, Klaussner claims to have invented a way to signal to the recipient of a voicemail message by sending DTMF tones as part of the message - which, by the way, seems like a non-patentably obvious bit of "inventing".

Work with me on this... hmmm.... I have a recorder here, which can be used to save messages... these messages are in audio format.... they could be people saying words.... or they could be other sounds that were somehow meaningful.... like, oh, I dunno, maybe DTMF sounds. That's it! We could record DTMF sounds to pass messages, just as we could modulate our voices to say "words" that could leave messages, too! Patent that! Get me some lawyers!

What rubbish.

2007 Dec 03 10:02 PM

[cbunix23:]

The AT&T Intuity Audix Message Manager product ( now sold by Avaya or whoever bough them ) had this capability in 1995, predating the Klausner patent.

support.avaya.com/edoc...

Go to page 25 "Listening to your messages"

2007 Dec 03 11:13 PM

[gl:]

Interesting catch! I'm sure this will come up as this progresses. I wonder if it could even be used to invalidate Klausner's patent. That's always a risk when one pursues an infringment case.

2007 Dec 04 12:51 PM

[Tom B:]

Another parasitic, frivolous lawsuit.

2007 Dec 05 08:49 AM

[Michelle Wu:]

I think this is just a stupid act. It is obvious the main reason for Klausner wanting to sue so many companies is for the money, following the steps on NTP and hopefully will be just as lucky in winning the case. However, Klausner stand point doesn't seem to be as strong as NTP's, therefore, the chances of Klausner winning is doubtful.

2007 Dec 06 10:25 PM