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Skype founders sue eBay
By siliconindia
Bangalore: Skype founders have sued eBay owner and an investor group that has agreed to buy the Webphone service, accusing them of copyright violation and potentially disrupting the $1.9 billion deal. The lawsuit brought by Joltid, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, said that Skype used its technology without authorization. It comes on the heels of a legal dispute between Joltid and Skype in U.K. over software rights.
The lawsuit said, "The Skype companies have continued to infringe Joltid's copyrighted works on a massive scale. Each day that the Skype Companies continue to make available its internet telephone software for download, Skype users download Joltid's copyrighted works approximately six times per second."
Filed in Northern California U.S. District Court this week, the latest suit seeks a permanent injunction against Skype and damages. Joltid believes damages are piling up at a rate of more than $75 million a day.
eBay licenses peer-to-peer technology from Joltid for Skype, but has begun to develop its own alternative software given the uncertain outcome of pending litigation with Joltid. eBay has denied the allegation and said, "Their allegations and claims are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors."
Earlier this year, Skype filed a claim in the U.K. against Joltid, trying to resolve a dispute over a software licensing agreement between the parties that Joltid was seeking to terminate. Joltid brought a counterclaim, reiterating that it holds the rights to the peer-to-peer technology and that Skype is in violation of the original agreement.
A trial is expected to take place in early 2010 in the U.K. Skype, whose 2008 revenue rose 44 percent to $551 million, charges for calls to regular telephones but provides free computer-to-computer voice, video and text services. It had about 405 million registered users at the end of 2008.
