Wireless carriers sued over patents
From Times Wire Services
AT&T; Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., the biggest U.S. wireless carriers, were sued by NTP Inc. over patent infringement claims similar to those it made against Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device.
Closely held NTP, a technology-licensing company based in Virginia, claims that the carriers are violating eight patents for e-mail services. NTP wants royalties based on sales of phones, personal digital assistants and other e-mail devices.
NTP’s patent lawsuit against Research in Motion ended with a $612.5-million settlement in March 2006.
