RingCentral has been denied an injunction against Zoom that would have allowed it to carry on selling its Zoom-powered RingCentral Meetings (RCM) product.
This is the latest instalment of a saga that started in March which centres on the pair’s differing interpretations of their agreement.
Zoom sued RingCentral for selling (RCM) despite claiming it had ended the pair’s agreement, but RingCentral claims the terms mean it can continue selling the product with Zoom obliged to provide support to customers.
Specifically, the injunction centres on whether Zoom can block RCM customers from using the solution.
Zoom did this at the start of the court tussle before an injunction was granted in favour of RingCentral which meant had to continue supporting the product.
This injunction was later revoked, meaning Zoom could legally block access to RCM for customers who purchased it after 1 February 2021.
RingCentral last week tried unsuccessfully to have the injunction reinstated.
Three Appeal Court judges said that both Zoom and RingCentral had presented “plausible” interpretations of their agreement, adding that the court had acted reasonably by not granting RingCentral the injunction it had asked for.
The issue is expected to go to trial next year.
RingCentral said in a statement sent to UC Today: “The Court of Appeals declined to address the merits of the dispute, finding only that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying a preliminary injunction. For us, it is business as usual. We look forward to a determination of the issues at trial.”
Doug Lumish – Partner at Latham & Watkins and representing Zoom – said: “We are pleased with this ruling in favor of Zoom and look forward to resolving this matter through the continuing legal process. For over seven years, RingCentral has been using Zoom’s popular and reliable video communications technology to power its own RingCentral Meetings.
“With the partnership coming to an end, RingCentral is publicly touting its own technology yet inexplicably asking Zoom to continue supporting RingCentral Meetings well beyond the contract’s end date in order to help them fulfil promises they made to customers without Zoom’s knowledge or consent.
“Zoom is confident that the legal process will confirm that Zoom has no obligation to support legacy RingCentral Meeting customers after the end of the contract’s sunset period. If RingCentral truly believes in their own technology, they should use it.”
