A federal jury awarded Sprint a $139.8 million in payment for copyright infringement conducted by Time Warner Cable. The case has been in court since 2011 in Federal Court in Kansas City.
The jury decided on Friday, Feb.3 that Time Warner Cable infringed Sprint’s patent on VoIP technology as reported by Telecompaper. For the infringement, Time Warner Cable, which is now part of Charter Communications has to pay $139.8 million compensation.
Sprint initially filed the complaint in 2011 against three telco companies for selling systems and services that used Sprint’s VoIP technology. Sprint has 12 patents in VoIP and alleged Time Warner Cable, Comcast Cable Communications, Cox Communications and Cable One for violating the VoIP patent owned by Sprint.
In the case against Time Warner Cable, the jury found the company to infringe five VoIP patents according to Bloomberg. For the infringement, the jury awarded Sprint full damages demand.
Time Warner Cable was not pleased with the jury’s decision and currently weighs in the option. The company’s spokesperson Justin Venech said, “We are disappointed with the outcome and are considering our options.”
The Kansas City Federal Court will proceed with a similar case against Comcast next week per court docket. Previously, the lawsuit against Cable One was dismissed last year in November. While the other case against Cox Communications faced counterclaim.
Cox Communication filed a counterclaim soon after Sprint sued the four companies. Cox argued the claim from Sprint was too vague and as the consequences, the lawsuit was invalid.
At first, the court agreed with the Cox’s argument, but Sprint filed an appeal. In 2016, the higher court reversed the decision and the case between Sprint and Cox Communication is now undetermined.
Sprint is now a merger between company between Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications after Sprint acquired Nextel in December 2004. However, the merger was an unfortunate decision, because Nextel’s value diminished rapidly within four years after the merger. Therefore, Sprint now has to exercise all available options to stay competitive.
