Sprint Puts Three More in Its Legal Crosshairs

Sprint’s legal eagles are circling more operators as the company pursues another batch of VoIP-related patent lawsuits.

The latest to join that mix are WideOpenWest, Atlantic Broadband, and TPG Global, which, recently acquired Wave Broadband and also owns RCN Corp. and Grande Communications.

The Denver Business Journal,which first reported on the suits, said the TPG-owned entities are named in the suits, which are seeking unspecified damages and permanent injunctions in each case.

Sprint is expanding those legal actions about two months after Sprint and Cox Communications cut a deal to drop the patent spat and move into a multi-year business agreement that centers on the densification of Sprint’s wireless network and other unspecified components that will “increase and strengthen other business” ties between them, leading to speculation that Cox and Sprint might have an MVNO deal that could help Cox reenter the mobile arena.

RELATED: Cox Pulls Plug on Wireless Service 

Sprint and Comcast settled a separate patent suit last fall. Time Warner Cable (now part of Charter Communications) lost its case with Sprint in a judgement handed down last year. Sprint’s suit against Cable One was dismissed by the court in November 2016, according to court documents.

RELATED: Comcast Settles Sprint Patent Spat for $250M

In December, Sprint targeted Mediacom Communications in a suit alleging that the cable operator had violated more than a dozen patents tied to VoIP services.