Ring Plus Filed a Motion to Disqualify AT&T Wireless Attorneys from Baker Botts Law Firm for Ex-Parte Communications with Board Member
Hard Fight about Ring Back Signal Patent
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--On Sunday December 23, 2007, Ring Plus, Inc. filed a motion to
disqualify the law firm of Baker Botts from representing AT&T Wireless
for ex-parte communications with a Ring Plus official. Mr. Tom
Garretson, an officer of Ring Plus as well as a member of Ring Plus'
board, had exchanged several emails with AT&T's law firm Baker Botts
over a period of several months. In one of his emails, Mr. Garretson
stated that he "possess a great deal of information that (he) would
like to share...patent strengths, weaknesses, Ring Plus legal
strategy, claim defense strategy, etc."
"The significance of this statement, besides the fact that these
are hardly the words of a non-lawyer like Mr. Garretson, is the fact
that the scope of the communications clearly goes to privileged
subject matter of the lawsuit," according to Ring Plus lawyers in
their motion. Furthermore, Ring Plus contends in its motion that Baker
Botts partner, Doug Kubehl, stated in a letter the fiction that Ring
Plus counsel had represented to him that Mr. Garretson is not "now or
ever has been affiliated in any way with Ring Plus, Inc."
Ring Plus, based in Longview, Texas, is the holder of U.S. patent
No. 7,006,608, invented by Karl Seelig et al. and granted by the
United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 28, 2006. This
patent claims a software-based algorithm for operation of a telephone
system in which a generated sound presentation can replace or overlay
a ring-back signal normally heard in a caller's telephone until such
time as a recipient of a telephone call answers (otherwise known as a
ring-back tone or "RBT"). AT&T offers Answer Tones Service which is
described by AT&T as a way to "Save your friends from having to listen
to that plain old ring when they call you. Answer Tones let your
friends enjoy cool music before you answer your phone". The value of
RBT replacement technology is globally $2.7 Billion and increasing.
Ring Plus filed its lawsuit for patent infringement on April 14, 2006.
According to Technology Law 360, Cingular started selling Answer Tones
ring back services on its website for $.99 per month in 2005. AT&T's
website is currently offering Answer Tones for $1.99 a download, plus
a monthly subscription rate of $.99.
The case number is 2:06-cv-0159.
The Attorneys representing Cingular Wireless LLC, AT&T wireless
services Inc. are: Larry Carlson, Doug Kubehl, David Taylor, Michael
Jones, and Diane DeVasto.
The Attorneys representing Ring Plus are: Frederic M. Douglas,
Jerry L. Mowery, Timothy Midgley, Sang Dang, and George Fountain.
Perceptive Impression (Public Relations)
Gavin Navarro, 310-247-9002 Ext. 60
Copyright Business Wire 2008
