Competing against Skype 103: Patent War
Do you think Skype is a threat to incumbent telcos?
This is the third in a series outlining tactics telcos have at their disposal to answer the question "If you think Skype is a threat to your telecom profits, how can you compete?"
Lock up Intellectual Property.
A legal attack.
Throw big money at IP lawyers in major countries with strong patent enforcement, point them at Skype, see what happens.
Worst case, you force Skype to steal money from R&D and marketing budgets to pay for legal defense.
Best cases: disrupt operations, extract cash compensation, force market abandonment.
As attacks go, this is high opportunity, small cost, small chance. It's fair to assume Skype's early investors and eBay performed IP due diligence. You never know, though; look at Verizon's attack on Vonage and several attacks on RIM, long after they were vetted.
An indirect version of this attack targets Skype's suppliers and partners, especially Joltid and Global IP Sound. Joltid provides the P2P parts of Skype's network; StreamCast Networks sued eBay based on connections to Grokster via Joltid. GIPS supplied audio software for Skype clients until recent releases.
You can also attack Skype using a proxy. IDT subsidiary Net2Phone sued Skype in June 2006; it's still open. IDT's biggest suppliers are incumbent telcos.
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