Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) have been added to a list of companies being sued by Klausner Technologies over visual voicemail patents.
Klausner claims that Motorola’s new CLIQ handset uses its patented Visual Voicemail technology. Several other Motorola models with the Visual Voicemail feature are already covered under Klausner Technologies’ Visual Voicemail patent licenses granted to mobile operators.
The company also says that the 3G BlackBerry Bold 9700 also unfairly uses its Visual Voicemail. As with Motorola handsets, several BlackBerry models already use Klausner’s Visual voicemail technology under patent licensing agreements.
The suit against Motorola and RIM is just the latest in a long slew of complaints filed by Klausner to get companies like LG Electronics and Vonage to pay royalty fees for their use of visual voicemail. The suits were filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.
Klausner has 25 patents worldwide covering the basics of visual voicemail, which allows users to selectively listen to their voice messages on their mobile phones or computers.
The company currently licenses out its patents to 24 different operators, including Verizon, AT&T and Apple.
