Sprint Settles Big River Telephone Over Patent Agreement

Sprint has finally reached an agreement with Big River Telephone over
the lawsuit filled against it by the former as regards VoIP patent
right. Details of the agreement reached were not disclosed, but it is
clear that Big River Telephone would be allowed to wholesale telephone
services to other small cable operators.
Under the terms of the settlement, Big River will compensate Sprint
for a non-exclusive license to Sprint’s VoP patent portfolio to allow
Big River to provide services to predefined cable companies. This
portfolio contains more than 120 United States patents, as well as
numerous foreign patents, covering systems, components and methods for
carrying voice traffic over a packet-based network, such as the
Internet.
Sprint had sued Big River, along with three other telecommunications
companies, in January 2008 alleging infringement of six patents owned
by Sprint relating to Voice over Packet (VoP) communications systems,
phone calls made over the Internet.
Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kan., previously settled with
the three other telecommunications companies. Sprint Nextel offers a
comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services
bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and
government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing,
engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two
wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of
the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services;
instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a
global Tier 1 Internet backbone.