Apple sued for visual voicemail patent infringement - again
APPLE AND AT&T are being sued by a company called Klausner Technologies for purportedly stealing its patent on visual voicemail.
It is the second time Klausner has had a bash at the suit, after it updated its original complaint from December. The outfit claims both Apple and AT&T infringed its patent of a “Telephone Answering Device Linking Displayed Data with Recorded Audio Message”.
Apple’s Iphone allows users to identify individual voicemail messages in their voicemail box and selectively listen to them using the Iphone interface, without having to go through all the messages to get to the ones they want.
But Klausner claims that the original idea was their own and claim, in a lawsuit launched in the District Court of Eastern Texas on Wednesday, to have unfairly suffered at the hands of Apple and AT&T’s “wanton disregard of the Plaintiff’s rights.”
Klausner’s lawyers are calling for an injunction stopping Apple from infringing any further on the patent. They are also suing for monetary damages and court costs. µ
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Found their patent here:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5572576.html

According to the abstract and description, it does do random access to messages but it is designed to work with landlines, and uses DTMF tones. The iPhone doesn't use DTMF to communicate with the AT&T towers.

It also seems to be identifying callers only via caller ID, the iPhone (like all cell phones) puts in the caller's name as you have it programmed in your phone, at least for those people calling you whose number you already have.

There's a lot of claims, and I'm not a patent lawyer so I'm sure some will be knocked out and some will be maintained. But I think its pretty ridiculous if they would have a chance of winning a lawsuit when the abstract and description clearly describe a device that is at least in some ways completely unlike an iPhone, or any cell phone for that matter.

I think the best outcome of this suit would be for Apple to lose its visual voicemail patent so that other cell phones could use it.

Its not like its that original of an idea, I wondered why I could see my messages listed on screen rather than having voicemail work just like it did on my landline when I got my first cell phone in 2000! Obviously I should have patented the concept, and I too could be suing Apple and hoping for a fat settlement so I never had to do an honest day's work for the rest of my life!
Hi

Are you to Andrew Thomas what Gertrude Perkins is to Black Adder? i.e. Are you Andrew Thomas?

If not, judging by your headlines and articles, I think the two of you should co-write a comedy series for the likes of Rowan... It's bound to be good!

Or, in other words, I enjoy yours and Andrew's very witty headlines and quips; keep them coming.
Who are these people anyway? They have to show some form of damage. They state that this damages their product? The way I see it is they're getting alot of good publicity out of this. Two times for the same "infringement"? Sounds like Apple should be charging them for advertising!

East Texas, c'mon get y'all thumbs out of yer backsides and stop all of dese dum lawsuites!
"I think the best outcome of this suit would be for Apple to lose its visual voicemail patent so that other cell phones could use it."

The problem is that if Apple "looses" their patent, it just means that the people suing them and AT&T can sue other people for money or require a licensing fee for the technology which most companies don't want to deal with. What would end up happening is companies would have to come up with something that doesn't infringe upon the patent.

Patent law is ridiculous these days. I still say that you need to build a device &/or sell/license your patent within a year - or at least some "short" time frame - or it'll become null and void.