Joost, the Internet television provider, has been added to the existing lawsuit brought on by StreamCast Networks over the rights to the service underlying FastTrack peer-to-peer technology.
The suit announced by StreamCast Networks a year ago is regarding its Morpheus software, which allows creators and copyright holders to sell their content to a market of peer-to-peer users. The suit alleges that Kazaa, Skype and Joost co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis profited from the sale of Skype to eBay after they improperly transferred the rights to FastTrack in a breach of contract and used it for Skype, and now Joost. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the sale and marketing of Skype, and damages for an unspecified amount.
Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is eBay, which acquired Skype in 2005, along with twenty-one other parties. We've already seen how this can go down, with one company trying to halt sales of another company. Verizon accused Vonage of patent infringement last year, and nearly succeeded in shutting down sales for Vonage.