Woodcock Washburn counsels clients in the telecommunications industry on intellectual property matters ranging from securing patents to enforcing and defending these valuable assets. Our attorneys' technical backgrounds make us a leader in the telecommunications industry because we thoroughly understand each client's business from an insider's point of view. Previous positions held by some of our lawyers include chief intellectual property officer for AT&T Mobility, chief patent counsel for BellSouth, patent counsel for RCA, associate general counsel for intellectual property and licensing for Microsoft, and intellectual property counsel for Motorola Broadband Communications Sector.

"Telecommunications" encompasses a universe of technologies and services such as cellular, circuit-switched and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony systems. The term also applies to broadband access networks and devices, virtual private networks and devices, analog and digital broadcast television systems and methods, Internet protocol television, video-on-demand (VOD), streaming media, electronic and interactive program guides (EPGs and IPGs), satellite communication systems and devices, satellite navigation systems and devices, data services, cellular telephone location systems and location-based services and Internet services and methods. Our attorneys actively participate in technology and early-stage-oriented groups such as the New Jersey Technology Council, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies.

Woodcock Washburn lawyers have secured patents for clients on a multitude of telecommunications inventions, including broadband access architectures; methods of providing dedicated class or quality of service in data networks; advanced digital compression and signal processing techniques used in digital subscriber line and VoIP systems; cellular telephone infrastructure, handsets and authentication; advanced intelligent network technologies and services; optical and electrical connectors; network element management systems and software; network topology control; cellular telephone location techniques and systems; and many more.

Our firm also counsels clients on the infringement, validity and enforceability of patents in telecommunications technologies such as: EPGS and IPGs, fiber optic digital transmission systems, global positioning system (GPS) and assisted-GPS navigation and location systems and services, digital switching and control systems, voice messaging systems, VOD systems and services, cellular telephone location systems and techniques, digital cable systems, and digital voice, data and video transmission systems, to name a few.

Woodcock Washburn represents telecommunications innovators such as AT&T, InterDigital, FCI, and TruePosition. Our firm recently:

• Led the negotiation team in securing a temporary transition trademark license agreement in the telecommunications industry for the largest all-cash merger ever.
• Served as lead counsel in creating a comprehensive set of intellectual property licenses and cross-licenses in the creation of a national joint venture in the telecommunications industry.
• Negotiated a comprehensive intellectual property license and product agreement relating to interactive program guides in the cable industry.
• Served as lead IP attorney in securing intellectual property rights from several companies to the technology for implementing instant messaging services and other services on wireless handsets.

Woodcock Washburn attorneys also regularly litigate intellectual property disputes involving a wide variety of telecommunications technologies. For example, in TruePosition, Inc. et al. v. Allen Telecom, Inc. (D.DE.), Woodcock Washburn secured a $35 million settlement for TruePosition. The case involved patent infringement and unfair competition with respect to wireless location systems. Other representative cases include:

• Civix-DDI, LLC v. Motorola, Inc. et al. (N.D.IL.) representing Motorola in a patent infringement lawsuit involving Internet-based mapping and location systems and methods.
• AT&T, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp. (S.D.NY.) representing Microsoft in a patent infringement case involving voice encoder-decoder products.
• Premier Networks, Inc. v. BellSouth Corp. (N.D.GA) representing BellSouth in patent infringement litigation involving subscriber station networks and push-button to rotary dial converter telephone systems.
• ARCOM Labs., Inc. v. Pico Products, Inc. (NY) representing Pico Products in an action alleging breach of a patent license agreement involving electronic filters used in TV signal transmission and reception systems.