Google is being sued by a small New York internet call company that claims to hold patents for the technology that enables voice calls to be made over the internet. The New York-based Rates Technology said it would probably seek damages of about $5bn. It alleges that the internet search engine has infringed its patents with the recently launched Google Talk.
Jerry Weinberger, chief executive of Rates Technology Inc (RTI), said he was the inventor of software programming that allows telephone calls to be placed over the Internet. Weinberger alleged that Google has abused two patented RTI software programs in Google Talk, which enables users to talk through a computer headset or to instant message each other for free.
RTI claims companies including Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo and Lucent have made one-off payments for use of its patents and that the firm is in similar talks with Time Warner and eBay. It is in legal action with others. Google (Steve Langdon) said the suit was without merit.
3 comments:
This is going to be a tough one to win, I think. I am sure Google will agree to make a one-time small payment (small for a google-sized company) and get the monkey off their backs.
Then the lawyers at Google could have figured out that RTI has no legal ground and will take them to task.
I will have to research RTI. I was not aware that they even existed. Lots of other companies they need a payment from, I am sure.
Eric
Google can google out of the legal confrontation. But if others have already paid for the use of the patents, Google should do likewise.
That claim is a pile of shite. It's like Microsoft saying they have a patent on email. :P BA~~9
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