New York tech firm to sue Google

New York tech firm to sue Google- The Times of India: "NEW YORK: A small New York technology firm said on Sunday that it was suing search titan Google for up to $5 billion dollars for patent violation in the Internet telephony software used in Google Talk.

Jerry Weinberger, chief executive of Rates Technology Inc (RTI), said he was the inventor of software programming that allows telephone calls to be placed over the Internet.

He said 120 companies, including Lucent, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo and Microsoft, have paid RTI to use the technology for 'Voice over Internet Protocol' (VoIP) calls.

RTI filed suit in a Long Island federal court against Google two months ago because the search engine was using the technology without authorisation, Weinberger said after the New York Post reported the lawsuit on Sunday.

'They told us to go to hell,' the RTI boss said. 'They are the most arrogant company in the world.'..."

GameSHOUT: "Rates Technology Inc., which holds patents for the process by which most Internet phone calls are made, confirmed on Friday that it is suing Google Inc. over its Web-based phone calling system.

New York-based RTI said it estimated that damages from the lawsuit could reach $5 billion, assuming the litigation process takes four years as the market for Internet-based phone services booms.

"Ordinarily we don't need to sue people to get them covered under our patents," RTI President Jerry Weinberger told Reuters. "Every once in a while we run into utter arrogance."

RTI holds two patents in the telecommunications field and generally takes a one-time fee of up to $5 million to cover companies who provide the services or the equipment to support them. It filed the suit against Google in October.

Weinberger said companies covered under RTI patents include Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Verizon Communications."