Net2Phone Files Patent Suit Against Skype

By Geoff Duncan June 5, 2006

Seems like everyone wants a piece of the VoIP pie: Net2Phone, the newly-acquired Internet telephone division of IDT, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey against VoIP giant Skype, itself recently acquired by online auction firm eBay. At issue: Net2Phone claims Skype’s VoIP technology infringes against a patent granted Net2Phone in August 2000. The patent concerns the exchange of IP addresses to establish data links between Internet-connected systems.

Net2Phone is seeking an injunction against Skype’s Internet-based phone service and unspecified damages.

Net2Phone’s parent company IDT primarily provides centralized voice telephony solutions for cable companies and telco providers; Skype, conversely, provider peer-to-peer end-user VoIP telephony applications.

The lawsuit marks the second recent legal tussle faced by Skype: the company is also facing a suit from StreamCast Networks which claims Skype Founders Niklas ZennstrÃ¶m and Jaaqnus Friis

Geoff Duncan

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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