Ribbon Communications, a brand with two decades of market leadership in providing secure and intelligent cloud communication services, recently announced further issues with MetaSwitch. Following previous legal actions taken against MetaSwitch for copyright infringements, Ribbon announced that additional lawsuits have been filed against the cloud-native communications company with the US District Court. The most recent lawsuit asks for enhanced damages after MetaSwitch has apparently continued to infringe upon seven Ribbon patents, from the GENBAND subsidiary. The previous lawsuit found MetaSwitch to be guilty of infringing on these patents in 2016, however, Ribbon claims that the company is still stepping on their toes today. The latest lawsuit also seeks damages due to "misleading" statements that MetaSwitch apparently issued regarding the prior suit.
A Complex Legal Battle
While the original lawsuit was filed by GENBAND in 2016, it wasn't until the 22nd of March 2018 when the "Final Judgement" was released. In spring this year, the court confirmed that products such as the MetaSwitch SBC, Softswitches, and Gateways all infringed on 7 of Ribbon's existing patents.
$8.9 million in damage was awarded to Ribbon Communications as a result of the first lawsuit, to cover a two-year period of infringement. Additionally, a further $368,046 in costs was awarded. The court also asked MetaSwitch to pay royalties for the two-year period when the company sold the infringing products.
In the suit filed on April 18th, 2018, Ribbon is seeking damages for continued infringement, claiming that the MetaSwitch redesigned products are still stepping on the toes of the company's patents. Ribbon seeks a finding that MetaSwitch is willfully infringing on the same patents and have asked that the courts increase the royalty rate as a result.
