I don't understand why Sprint is suing a bunch of folks over VoIP patents. Sprint's aim in assembling a patent portfolio was primarily to create a bargaining chip that could be used in negotiations with big suppliers. You cross-license your intellectual property in return for ours. This greatly lubricates relationships between the carriers and major suppliers and partners (e.g. IBM).
Licensing revenue has not, generally, been a significant factor. Ability to bleed upstart competitors disintermediating your cash-cow voice business? Hmm, maybe.
There are some cool Sprint patents on how to deploy and operate fibre and wireless networks. There are more cutting-edge technically savvy inside operators than their reputation would suggest. Sprint does some quality stuff over at Sprint Labs. So I would counsel people not to dismiss out of hand that Sprint folks were thinking throuh the challenges of deploying VoIP apps and filing patents well ahead of the curve.
That said, somebody in the legal department must have had one double espresso too many and got over-excited. I can't see how this lawsuit is worth the PR mess.
How do I know? Seventeen of Sprint's patent applications have my name on them as sole or joint inventor. None in the space of the current lawsuit, though -- mine were mostly around the wireless web and handset features.
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