IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT; IDT.C) said today that a German court
recently fined Lycatel (Ireland) Limited and its managing director
30,000 Euros each for violating the court’s injunction in a patent
infringement case brought by Prepaid Cards BVBA, a Belgian affiliate of
IDT.
The District Court of Duesseldorf imposed the fines on November 17,
2008. The decision is subject to appeal.
The current decision came after the District Court of Duesseldorf,
Germany, found on May 13, 2008 in a first instance decision that Lycatel
(Ireland) Limited, Lycatel Services Limited, and certain of their
present and former directors infringed upon the German part of the
European patent EP 0 572 991. This patent relates to a procedure for
processing prepaid telephone calls, and is the subject of an action
brought by Prepaid Cards BVBA, the exclusive licensee of this patent.
The District Court of Duesseldorf found that the defendants committed
the asserted patent infringing actions by providing prepaid calling card
services in Germany with respect to the calling cards according to the
type "Messenger”, "Matrix”, "GHANAtel”, "Nigeriatel”, "Turkeytel”,
"IndiaTEL”, "PAKISTANTEL”, "Banglatel”, "EUROPETEL”, "ArabTel”,
"AFRICATEL”, "MAXIAsia”, "AsiaTel”, "MaxiEUROPE”, "MaxiAfrica”,
"MAXIWORLD”, "GLOBALTEL” and "EASTERNTEL”.
An appeal by defendants is currently pending against this decision with
the Court of Appeals of Duesseldorf (court docket: I-2 U 51/08).
Further, a nullity complaint dated July 23, 2008 was filed by Lycatel
Services Ltd. against the German part of the patent with the German
Federal Patent Court (court docket: 4 Ni 77/08 (EU)).
On July 30, 2008, Prepaid Card BVBA preliminarily enforced the entire
first instance judgment against the defendants amongst others by
providing a security bond in the amount of 250,000 Euros. Thereby, the
defendants are enjoined from continuing the infringing actions (namely
by offering and selling prepaid calling cards of the above mentioned
type using the patented method), and obliged to provide accounting
information so that damages may be calculated. Defendants filed a
petition to provisionally suspend the preliminary enforcement with the
Court of Appeals of Duesseldorf which rejected the petition as unfounded
with a decision dated August 28, 2008.
As Prepaid Cards BVBA became aware of Lycatel (Ireland) Limited’s
continued violation of the preliminary enforced injunction, Prepaid
Cards BVBA initiated a penalty proceeding against Lycatel (Ireland)
Limited and its managing director with the District Court of
Duesseldorf. The District Court of Duesseldorf imposed the fines on
November 17, 2008 as above mentioned. These fines are to be paid to the
benefit of the court cashier, and are independent of any damages that
may be awarded in this case.
In an earlier lawsuit, Prepaid Cards BVBA, was successful in a finally
decided patent infringement action against the German company
Europacom.net GmbH, for infringement of the German part of the mentioned
patent. In a parallel nullity procedure, the patent was fully upheld
with respect to its effect in Germany by a final decision of the German
Federal Supreme Court dated March 7, 2006.
IDT’s large range of prepaid and rechargeable calling card products and
services are sold throughout Europe, including in Germany. "We aim to
provide quality calling cards which give the consumer fair value for
their money. We believe that our patent protected calling card products
offer a compelling value proposition for consumers and distributors,”
said Alex Moraga, Director of IDT Retail-Europe.
IDT Corporation
IDT
Corporation (www.idt.net) is a
consumer-focused multinational holding company.
In this press release, all statements that are not purely about
historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use
the words "believe,” "anticipate,” "expect,” "plan,” "intend,”
"estimate, "target” and similar expressions, are forward-looking
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While these forward-looking statements
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maintain and grow our retail telecommunications services, particularly
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agreements with foreign carriers; effectiveness of our marketing and
distribution efforts; increased competition, particularly from regional
bell operating companies; our ability to manage our growth; impact of
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