RIM, Nokia, world+dog sued over phone network patent

WHILE RESEARCH in Motion continues to attempt to settle its case with NTP, it appears that it, in common with many other well known firms have received a write from m'learned fiends alleging a patent infringement.

This case was filed last month by Texas-based Antor against a veritable raft of firms including Nokia, UTStarcom, Audiovox, Kyocera, Sanyo, Sharp, NEC, RIM, Virgin Mobile, LG Electronics, Palm One and Panasonic.

Antor Media alleges in the eastern district Texas court, Marshall Division, that all of the above firms have infringed a patent numbered 5,734,961 and catchily called "Method and apparatus for transmitting information recorded on information storage means from a central server to subscribers via a high data rate digital telecommunications network". Antor said it was assigned this patent on the 31st of March, 1998.

Antor alleges that the defendants infringe its patent by making devices and offering sales for the downloading of media including video, music and ringtones. The patent is a lengthy tome with some good old fashioned images of electro-mechanical stuff. µ