James Delahunty
21 Sep 2009 23:13
The founders of the P2P VoIP Internet communication service Skype - Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom - have filed a lawsuit against the former chairman of Joost, Michael Volpi, for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the P2P technology at the core of Skype and Joost.
Volpi was fired just last week, and at the time Joost announced that it was investigation his actions while he was chief executive and chairman of the Web TV firm. Friis and Zennstrom have already taken legal action against eBay recently through their company Joltid, which they claim owns the technology used by the Skype software.
The auction giant had warned the markets back in July that questions were being raised about the ownership of the technology central to Skype. Plans for an IPO were blocked by a disagreement over patents. eBay originally paid $2.6 billion for Skype.
The new lawsuit alleges that Michael Volpi stole confidential and highly proprietary information. It was filed in a Delaware court.