(EXCLUSIVE) Twitter Hit With $2.7B Lawsuit

Twitter Hit With $2.7B Lawsuit

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, a patent holding company that previously lodged twin patent infringement suits against Apple, Verizon and AT&T seeking a total of $7 billion filed a $2.7 billion suit in Nevada federal court, accusing social media giant Twitter of infringing its patents covering Voice over internet Protocol technology.

Voip-Pal.com Inc. (“VLPM”) claims that Twitter’s messaging functions, including direct messages and retweets, directly and indirectly infringe its two VoIP patents. Voip-Pal claims its patents cover a system of utilizing user profile data that affects how messages are delivered to recipients. The complaint says,

Twitter employs VPLM’s innovative technology and products, features, and designs, and has widely distributed infringing products and/or services that have undermined VPLM’s marketing and monetization efforts. Instead of incorporating non-infringing technology into its products and services, Twitter has employed and has incorporated VPLM’s patented communication classification and routing technology, in violation of VPLM’s valuable intellectual property rights.

Voip-Pal said it calculated its damages at $2.7 million by applying a royalty rate of 20 percent to Twitter’s market capitalization of approximately $13.5 billion. The company says,

While we estimate that over 50% of the messaging taking place on Twitter’s platform infringes on Voip-Pal’s intellectual property, in order to remain conservative, we have selected a 20% royalty rate.

On Feb. 9, Voip-Pal filed a patent infringement suit against Apple Inc. seeking $2.8 billion for stepping on its VoIP patents. The next day, it hit Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. with a similar suit, which sought $2.4 billion from Verizon and $1.8 billion from AT&T.

Those cases have been stayed pending the resolution of proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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