Jury Issues $156 million Dollar Judgement Against At&t Over Prepaid Calling Cards

A federal jury recently ruled in favor of Dallas based TGIP Inc. on their claim that At&t had used two of their patents that allowed the company to deliver point of sale activation for some of their prepaid calling cards. The lawsuit was originally filed back in March of 2006 and named At&t as well as Verizon, MCI and IDT. The later three companies settled out of court but At&t fought it all the way.

The $156 million dollar award was determined by a 4% royalty on At&ts 3.5 billion in calling card sales during the time frame in question.

While At&t is going to appeal the verdict, it seems as if this company has set the proper precedent in court to lay claim to most of the POSA technology in the market today. I guess it's the only company that actually managed to make money off POSA ;)