Sprint filed four patent infringement actions in the United States District Court against NuVox Communications, Broadvox Holdings, Big River Telephone Company, and Paetec Communications. Sprint alleges that each of these companies has infringed at least 6 VOP patents by selling VOP services that utilize the Sprint patents. Sprint seeks monetary damages from these companies and an injunction that would enjoin the companies from ongoing infringement.
Sprint noted that these lawsuits follow its recent successful legal action against Vonage Holdings. In October 2005, Sprint filed suit against Vonage Holdings and Voiceglo Communications in the same Kansas court asserting infringement of seven VOP patents. In August 2006, Voiceglo agreed to a settlement of its case by paying a confidential sum for a license to Sprint’s VOP patent portfolio. Sprint’s case against Vonage, however, proceeded to trial. In September of 2007, an eight-person jury found that Vonage had willfully infringed all of Sprint’s asserted patents and awarded Sprint $69.5 million in damages. Less than one month later, Vonage agreed to take a license under Sprint’s VOP portfolio and paid Sprint $80 million. The same patents asserted against Vonage and Voiceglo in the 2005 case have been asserted in the four new cases.http://www.sprint.com
