Klausner Sues RIM, Motorola over Visual Voicemail

By Geoff Duncan November 24, 2009

Apple might have raised the collective eyebrows of the mobile industry when it introduced its Visual Voicemail feature with the original iPhone—but guess what? Cupertino didn’t come up with the idea. Some 24 patents for visual voicemail applications are held by Klausner Technologies, and the company has pursued those patent rights against companies like Apple, Comcast, Google, Sprint, LG, T-Mobile, Skype, Vonage, Verizon, and others. Now, Klausner is on the warpath again, filing suit against both RIM and Motorola for infringing on visual voicemail patents.

500-blackberrybold9700-lg1 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

According to Klausner, the basis of its suit against RIM involves the BlackBerry Bold 9700; where previous BlackBerry models had their voicemail features covered under agreements between Klausner and mobile operators, the 9700 is apparently different enough to warrant its own suit. Klausner’s new suit against Motorola involves the new Cliq mobile phone; again, other Motorola phones’ voicemail features were apparently covered under licensing agreements between Klausner and mobile operators. Both suits have been filed in the patent-holder-friendly Eastern District of Texas by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner.

Although Klausner Technologies has been called a “patent troll” in some circles—the company ships no products—Judah Klausner is widely considered the the “father of the PDA” for his work creating electronic organizers back in in the 1970s.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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