Verizon settles VM lawsuit

A lawsuit filed by Klausner Technologies regarding visual voicemail technology was filed against a number of wireless providers earlier this summer, and one of those companies, Verizon Wireless, has decided to settle it out of court, according to a Friday report. Klausner reportedly granted Verizon Wireless and its subsidiary, Vodafone Group, a patent license, allowing it to use the voice message alerts. The exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed, though the deal was closed on Thursday.

Since the lawsuit, filed in August, Klausner has made similar settlements with other firms, including AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision, Sprint and Apple, all of which also used visual voicemail, allowing users to listen to their messages out of sequence via a visual interface. Other companies, namely Comverse, Embarq and Google, are still not settled, with negotiations ongoing, according to a Klausner representative.

Google allegedly infringes on the 1992 patent with its Grand Central or Google Talk voicemail feature, while Verizon's Visual Voice Mail service is the culprit at the wireless provider. Klausner initially demanded $360 million in punitive damages.

By Electronista Staff