Klausner sues Motorola, RIM over visual voicemail

The Motorola logo is seen on the companies corporate headquarters in Schaumberg, Illinois, February 3, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Inventor Judah Klausner filed suit against Motorola Inc and Research In Motion, alleging infringement of technology patents related to visual voicemail.

Visual voicemail lets phone users see who has left a voicemail and choose which messages they want to listen to.

Klausner's Klausner Technologies Inc has won settlements in the past from Apple Inc and LG Electronics.

Klausner Tech said on Monday its suit against Motorola is based on its recently launched Cliq phone, sold by T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom.

It said other Motorola models that use visual voicemail are covered by patent licenses granted to mobile phone operators. Motorola declined comment.

Klausner Tech said the suit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion relates to new BlackBerry Bold 9700 models. Other BlackBerry models with visual voicemail are covered under license agreements with operators, it said.

RIM was not immediately available for comment.

Both suits were filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.

Klausner Tech says it owns 25 patents related to visual voicemail.

Judah Klausner grabbed the attention of the mobile phone industry in late 2007 when his company sued Apple and six other companies for $360 million, alleging violations of patents on visual voicemail technology.

Motorola shares were up 1.5 percent and RIM U.S. shares were up 0.7 percent in afternoon trade.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by John Wallace)