Patent Office Grants EFF Request for Reexamination of Dangerous VOIP Patent

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won reexamination
of an illegitimate patent on voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP)
that could cripple the adoption of new VoIP technologies.

“TA company named Acceris Communications Technologies, now C2
Communications Technologies, was awarded the bogus patent for
hardware, software, and processes for implementing VoIP using
analog telephones as endpoints — covering many telephone calls
made over the Internet. EFF and the law firm Fenwick & West LLP
filed a reexamination request showing that both a prior patent and
published reference materials described the underlying technology
long before Acceris made its claim. Today the United States Patent
and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted EFF’s reexamination request,
ruling that there were substantial new questions of
patentability.

“T”Our American patent system is meant to encourage invention
and innovation,” said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. “Undeserved
patents instead serve to quash competition and hurt business and
consumers.”

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