AT&T, a leading U.S. telecommunications services provider, and Apple, maker of the iPhone (News - Alert), are reportedly being sued for patent infringement by Klausner Technologies, Inc.


In the suit -- filed in a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner -- Klausner asserts that Apple (News - Alert) and AT&T have violated its “visual voicemail” patents by endowing the iPhone, which works exclusively on AT&T’s wireless network, with a feature that allows user to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone's inbox display. The lawsuit alleges that the iPhone’s “Visual Voicemail,” as well as other visual voice messaging services implemented by AT&T, infringe on Klausner’s U.S. Patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818. The technology has reportedly already been licensed to other companies offering visual voicemail services, including Time Warner's (News - Alert) AOL for its AOL Voicemail services and Vonage’s Voicemail Plus services.

Klausner is reportedly seeking damages and future royalties estimated at $360 million from the two companies. Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner said Klausner has “litigated this patent successfully on two prior occasions.”

“With the signing of each new licensee, we continue to receive further confirmation of the strength of our visual voicemail patents," Dovel said in a statement.

Judah Klausner, founder of Klausner Technologies, is the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer. Interestingly, Apple's groundbreaking PDA, the Newton, was covered under an OEM patent license granted 20 years ago by Judah Klausner.

The suits against Apple and AT&T aren’t the only two filed by Klausner on Monday. The company also filed lawsuits against eBay Inc.'s Skype unit, Comcast Corp. and Cablevision Systems (News - Alert) Corp. for infringing on one or more of its messaging patents. Klausner also sued Vonage several months ago for infringing on its technology, however, Vonage (News - Alert) settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in October.