Can You Hear me Now? The Next Big VoIP Patent Battle will be Fought in Tacoma

It's been almost a year since Vonage, industry pioneer in VoIP and (after going from $17 at IPO to $1) current poster child for patent reform, settled allegations of patent infringement made by Sprint and Nortel (stories here and here) and more than a year since it was hit with a $58 M judgment following a jury's verdict of infringement and a potentially devastating injunction resulting from patent infringement allegations made by Verizon (story here; this judgment was subsequently vacated in its entirety, but the battle between Verizon and Vonage rages on in the E.D. of Virginia).

The next big VoIP battle is set to take place right here in the WD of Washington, where Skype faces allegations of infringement of US Patent No. 7,099,304, covering Apparatus, Methods, and Systems for Anonymous Communication. The owner of the '304 patent is Vancouver, WA-based Flexiworld Technologies, the self-described "leader in wireless applications for mobile devices, including laptop PCs, PDAs, digital cameras, and mobile phones."

The case was filed in March, but not much has happened so far. I uploaded a copy of the complaint including the patent. I'll keep you posted as the case progresses.

skypecomplaint.pdf