Sprint (News - Alert) Nextel Corp. has settled its patent infringement case with tglo.com and Theglobe.com, the companies announced on Thursday. But the case against Vonage (News - Alert) Holdings is still pending.

 

In October 2005, Sprint sued the defendant (then known as VoiceGlo Holdings) along with Vonage for allegedly infringing on seven patents held by Sprint covering Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies.

 

While the settlement may be good news for Theglobe.com, it may prove to be more problematic for Vonage, which is still defending patent infringement charges on multiple fronts. In addition to Sprint, Verizon (News - Alert), Rates Technology and Klausner Technologies have all sued the nation’s leading VoIP service provider for alleged patent infringement.

 

“The Vonage suit is ongoing and no court date has been scheduled at this point,” said Matthew Sullivan, Sprint Nextel spokesman.

 

The settlement comes despite vigorous posturing by Ed Cespedes, President of Theglobe.com and Treasurer of tglo.com, who has previously claimed their technology to be proprietary. But the company may have been more motivated to settle the legal dispute because Barron’s financial weekly reported last November that Cespedes engaged a financial advisor to sell the VoIP assets.

 

As part of the settlement, tglo.com and Theglobe.com have entered into a non-exclusive license under Sprint's patents. The remaining terms of the settlement are confidential.

 

“We are very satisfied with the resolution and the terms of the settlement,” Cespedes said in a prepared statement. “I want to assure our shareholders and customers that this settlement will not materially impact any ongoing or future operations of tglo.com or Theglobe.com. Our companies look forward to continuing to offer creative and useful communications solutions in the future.”

 

Due to a confluence of events, Theglobe.com was facing (and Vonage still faces) a considerable uphill climb in defending the patent infringement charges, as previously reported by TMCnet. Legal experts have stated that the evidence of prior art pointed in Sprint’s favor.

 

“Sprint's voice-over-packet portfolio comprises more than 100 patents covering different methods, components and systems employing VoIP and other technologies. Sprint considers the settlement a significant achievement for its patent portfolio,” said Harley Ball, Sprint's vice president of intellectual property.

 

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.