WASHINGTON - Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest US phone company, sued Charter Communications Inc., claiming infringement of eight patents for providing telephone services on a data network.
Charter, the US cable-television company controlled by billionaire Paul Allen, should be ordered to pay cash compensation for using the inventions without permission, Verizon said in a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Texarkana, Texas. Verizon asked for a court order blocking St. Louis-based Charter from using the technology.
Verizon is "losing market share to cable companies such as Charter, Comcast, and Time Warner," Standard & Poor's analyst Todd Rosenbluth said yesterday. "Even though Verizon is having some success in offsetting cable competition with their own products, they need to defend their turf."
Four of the eight patents were asserted by New York-based Verizon in its successful litigation against Vonage Holdings Corp. Vonage settled that case for $120 million about seven months after a Virginia jury found in March 2007 that the Holmdel, N.J.-based company violated three of the patents. The panel rejected Vonage's claims that the patents are invalid.
Charter offers phone service through its cable lines. Last month, Verizon sued Cox Communications Inc., a cable TV provider that also offers phone service, over the same eight patents in federal court in Norfolk, Va.
"These cable companies have their own triple play that matches up quite well with what Verizon's been offering," said Rosenbluth. Verizon lost 8 percent of its traditional phone lines in the fourth quarter last year, he said.
