WASHINGTON—Leap Wireless International Inc.’s flat-rate-service patent infringement suit against MetroPCS Communications Inc. in a Texas federal court could be the start of Leap’s major legal assault against small- and mid-sized wireless carriers around the country that are trying to emulate its all-you-can-eat price plans.
Leap and its Cricket subsidiary filed the patent suit against MetroPCS in June, only to be served with a countersuit earlier this month.
In the suit, Leap said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November 2004 issued it Patent No. 6,813,497 entitled “Method for Providing Wireless Communications Services and Network and System for Delivering Same.”
MetroPCS “has caused and will continue to cause Leap and Cricket substantial damage and irreparable harm by virtue of its past and continuing infringement of the ‘497 patent. Leap and Cricket will suffer further damage and irreparable injury unless and until is enjoined by this court from continuing such infringement,” Leap stated.
MetroPCS denied any wrongdoing, accusing Leap of stealing the original idea of an unlimited local calling service when MetroPCS was in talks with Leap’s former parent company Qualcomm Inc. for network infrastructure in the mid-1990s. MetroPCS also accused Leap of having ulterior motives when Leap initiated merger talks with MetroPCS in late 2005 and early 2006.
“Leap again misappropriated MetroPCS’ business plans and applied those misappropriated ideas to its own advantage in its Cricket wireless services,” MetroPCS told the court. “Once again, since MetroPCS does not directly compete with Leap, it did not know that Leap had misappropriated its information.”
Leap, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004, counted more than 1.8 million customers at the end of the second quarter. MetroPCS said it serves more than 2 million customers.
