Net2Phone Files Patent Suit Against Skype

By Geoff Duncan Published August 6, 2010

Seems like everyone wants a piece of the VoIP pie: Net2Phone, the newly-acquired Internet telephone division of IDT, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey against VoIP giant Skype, itself recently acquired by online auction firm eBay. At issue: Net2Phone claims Skype’s VoIP technology infringes against a patent granted Net2Phone in August 2000. The patent concerns the exchange of IP addresses to establish data links between Internet-connected systems.

Net2Phone is seeking an injunction against Skype’s Internet-based phone service and unspecified damages.

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Net2Phone’s parent company IDT primarily provides centralized voice telephony solutions for cable companies and telco providers; Skype, conversely, provider peer-to-peer end-user VoIP telephony applications.

The lawsuit marks the second recent legal tussle faced by Skype: the company is also facing a suit from StreamCast Networks which claims Skype Founders Niklas ZennstrÃ¶m and Jaaqnus Friis

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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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