PTO To Reexamine VoIP Patent

WASHINGTON, February 8, 2010 – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to reexamine a voice-over-Internet protocol patent at the request of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The EFF says that Acceris Communications Technologies, which has since changed its name to C2 Communications Technologies, was awarded the patent for hardware, software and processes for implementing VoIP using analog phones as endpoints, which includes many phone calls made over the Internet.

EFF and law firm Fenwick and West filed a reexamination request showing a prior patent and published reference materials before Acceris made its claim.

The PTO has said that there are substantial new questions of patentability, according to EFF.

In 2006, C2 sued major U.S. telecommunications carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and Qwest, alleging they were infringing the patent.