Digital Trends

Net2Phone is seeking damages and an injunction against VOIP leader Skype, saying the eBay unit infringes on a Net2Phone patent.

Seems like everyone wants a piece of the VoIP pie: Net2Phone, the newly-acquired Internet telephone division of IDT, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in new jersey against VoIP giant Skype, itself recently acquired by online auction firm eBay. At issue: Net2Phone claims Skype's VoIP technology infringes against a patent granted Net2Phone in August 2000. The patent concerns the exchange of IP addresses to establish data links between Internet-connected systems.

Net2Phone is seeking an injunction against Skype's Internet-based phone service and unspecified damages.

Net2Phone's parent company IDT primarily provides centralized voice telephony solutions for cable companies and telco providers; Skype, conversely, provider peer-to-peer end-user VoIP telephony applications.

The lawsuit marks the second recent legal tussle faced by Skype: the company is also facing a suit from StreamCast Networks which claims Skype Founders Niklas Zennström and Jaaqnus Friis—who also helped launch files-sharing service Kazaa—sold technology to eBay as part of its Skype acquisition which was supposed to have been sold to StreamCast.