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. And it turns out Klausner laid foundations for other tools that are everyday needs today: like visual voicemail.
First Klausner went after Apple for the visual voicemail implementation in the iPhone—and won a settlement&—along with Skype, Sprint, Verizon, Google, LG, Comcast, T-Mobile, Verizon and other. After winning settlements from Apple and Sprint, other major players have apparently seen the writing on the wall: in the last two days, Klausner has announced visual voicemail settlements with T-Mobile, LG, Citriz…and Internet titan Google. And the industry read is that if well-funded industry giants like Sprint, Apple, and Google aren’t taking this to court, either Klausner has them over a barrel or his settlement terms are more than reasonable.
Citrix’s settlement with Klausner covers Citrix’s Voice Office Suite’s Visual Voicemail offering for it’s IP-based phones; LG’s settlement covers visual voicemail implementations in the company’s mobile handsets (like the new Versa); T-Mobile’s agreement covers visual voicemail implementations offered by T-Mobile in 17 European countries via Deutsche Telekom. Google’s agreement with Klausner covers both VoIP services offered through a Google-acquired startup, Grand Central, as well as phones using Google’s open phone platform Android.
The latest settlements mean a total of 21 companies not licensing the Klausner’s visual voicemail patents. None of the companies in the current group of settlements revealed the financial terms of their deals.
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