Leap Wireless International, Inc. And Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. Settle Patent Lawsuit and Enter into License Agreement
Leap Wireless International, Inc., a mobile wireless services company headquartered in San Diego, California, and Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P., headquartered in Los Angeles, announced today that pending litigation between Katz and Leap Wireless affiliates has been dismissed. As part of a settlement, Leap Wireless has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for a nonexclusive license under a comprehensive portfolio of patents that Katz owns relating to interactive voice applications.
The nonexclusive license covers services offered by Leap Wireless in the wireless voice and data services field delivered through automated systems and live agents. Other terms of the license were not disclosed.
The patents held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. cover a wide range of interactive technology including automated forms of: customer service, prescription refill services, securities trading, merchandising, prepaid services, telephone conferences, registration, home shopping, as well as functions involved in securing information from databases by telephone, interactive cable transactions, and various other uses of toll free and local numbers.
Ronald A. Katz stated, “We welcome Leap Wireless International to the large number of leading telecommunications companies who have purchased license rights under this portfolio.”
There are over 200 companies with license rights under this portfolio, including over 25 energy and utility companies. Companies with license rights under this portfolio include: Advanta Corp., Alltel Corporation, American Century, American Express, Ameritrade Holding Corporation, Atmos Energy Corporation, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., AT&T Inc., Avon Products, Inc., Bank of America Corporation, BB&T Corporation, Capital One Services Inc., Certegy Inc., Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Countrywide Financial Corporation, Dell Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc., Discover Financial Services, Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P., Equifax Inc., Express Scripts, First Data Corporation, The Gallup Organization, Hewlett-Packard Company, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Home Shopping Network Inc., Household International, Inc., HSBC Bank USA, ING North America Insurance Corp., International Business Machines (IBM), KeyCorp, LaSalle Bank Corporation, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, MCI Inc., Mellon Financial Corporation, Merck & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Metris Companies Inc., Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nationwide, New York Life Insurance Company, OppenheimerFunds, Inc., People’s Bank, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., Principal Financial Group, Inc., Prudential Financial, Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc., QVC, Inc., Regions Financial Corporation, Safeway Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Sprint Corporation, SouthTrust Bank, Sunoco, Inc., SUPERVALU INC., T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., United Air Lines, Inc., The Vanguard Group, Inc., Verizon California Inc. and its affiliates, Wachovia Corporation, Walgreen Co., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, WellPoint, Inc., Wells Fargo & Company, West Corporation and Zions Bancorporation.
Mr. Katz is the named inventor on a large number of patents primarily in the fields of telecommunications and computing. He also formed Telecredit, Inc., the nation’s first on-line real time credit and check cashing authorization system, and was awarded a patent as co-inventor of that technology.