Apple Sued Over iPhone "Visual Voicemail"

So, let's try to count all the iPhone lawsuits, shall we? There are a couple of lawsuits over "bricking;" there's a "price discrimination" lawsuit; there are at least 3 lawsuits over batteries; what else?

Ah, yes. Monday, Klausner Technologies filed a $360 million suit against Apple and AT&T over voicemail patents that Klausner claims the Apple iPhone infringes upon with its "Visual Voicemail" service. Also named in the lawsuit are Comcast (Digital Voice Voicemail), Cablevision Systems Corp. (Optimum Voicemail) and Skype (Skype Voicemail).

The patent in question, U.S. patent 5,572,576, describes a "Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message."

Klauser filed a suit in 2006 against Vonage for the same patent; the lawsuit was settled out of court in October of this year. At this time both Vonage and AOL have licensed Klausner tech for their Vonage Voicemail Plus and AOL Voicemail services

This isn't the first time Klausner has sued Apple; in the mid-1990's it sued Apple over the Newton.

Although the previously mentioned iPhone lawsuits appear to be mostly nuisance suits, this one, since Klausner already has licensees for its tech, looks to have some teeth to it.