KCK jury hands Sprint $139.8 million verdict against Time Warner Cable

A federal jury in Kansas City, Kan., awarded Sprint $139.8 million in a patent infringement lawsuit against Time Warner Cable on Friday.

Sprint had sued Time Warner in 2011, arguing that the cable company had infringed on a number of patents that dealt with handling telephone calls through data networks rather than expensive traditional switching equipment.

Sprint’s lawsuit credited discoveries by an employee named Joe Christie for a “sea change in telephony.” Christie died unexpectedly in 1996, but his work led to Sprint’s patents involving voice-over-packet technology, Sprint said.

The patents were behind other legal claims Sprint had pursued against various companies that it said similarly had infringed on its patents. Sprint won $80 million from Vonage in a 2007 settlement and an undisclosed amount from a Fairport, N.Y., telecommunications company called Paetec Holding Corp. in 2009.

In its lawsuit, Sprint had said Time Warner Cable infringed on its patents in part with it offerings of “digital home phone” and “business class phone” services.

On Friday, the jury agreed with Sprint and awarded the damages, according to the jury verdict filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 8:00 PM with the headline "KCK jury hands Sprint $139.8 million verdict against Time Warner Cable."