Klausner Technologies sues Apple, AT&T over iPhone’s visual voicemail feature

Klausner Technologies has announced that it has filed a $360 million suit against Apple and AT&T over voicemail patents that it claims are infringed by the Apple iPhone.

The lawsuit also names Comcast, Cablevision Systems and the eBay-owned Skype as infringing its patent for 'visual voicemail', and seeks an additional $300 million from the three.

The suit alleges asserts that the defendants'' Internet-based voicemail products and services violate a Klausner's US patent 5,572,576, the same one at issue in a suit Klausner filed in 2006 against voice-over-Internet telephone service provider Vonage. It seeks damages and future royalties, estimated at $300 million.

The two sides agreed to settle the earlier case in October 2007, and Vonage is now a licensee of Klausner''s voicemail technology for its Vonage Voicemail Plus service, as is Time Warner''s AOL for its AOL Voicemail services.

Klausner has sued Apple earlier in the '90s, over patents involving the Apple Newton. Klausner claims Apple later agreed to a licensing deal. The new suit targets the sleek visual voicemail application offered by Apple in its iPhone.

Klausner also claims that Cablevision''s Optimum Voicemail, Comcast''s Digital Voice Voicemail and eBay''s Skype Voicemail violate its patent by allowing users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays. Klausner Technologies holds patents for retrieving messages from a menu which displays the caller, the calling number, and other such information.