Comcast dodges a VoIP patent bullet

It's a court ruling that could have put the VoIP world into a tailspin had it gone the other way. A federal judge in the ordinarily plaintiff-leaning Eastern District of Texas ruled late last week that Comcast Digital Voice was not, in fact, infringing on a patent that supposedly described pretty much all of VoIP. The case was brought by an outfit called Caritas Technology, which holds the license to four patents developed by, among others, Dave Farber. Farber, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was an original developer of AT&T's ESS switching system, a former head of technology policy at the FCC, moderates an extremely influential technology e-mail list and is generally seen as one of tech's 'Good Guys.' Caritas had wanted $2.2 billion from Comcast. It didn't get it.

For more information about the Caritas patent case:
- read this article from Internet Telephony