By Sharla Sikes

The telecommunications industry is lawsuit happy these days, with Qwest a new target for a patent-infringement suit from patent firm Rates Technology, Inc.

 RTI alleges that Qwest’s OneFlex broadband voice service violates patents it has held for years. RTI has demanded an injunction to prevent Qwest from selling VoIP services, and recall previously sold services.

RTI claims Qwest ignored requests to settle the matter out of court.

RTI holds several VoIP patents and has reached agreements with more than 140 VoIP providers. Qwest is in line behind Nortel Networks, GoogleTalk and Vonage in RTI’s list of companies it has sued.

Qwest has also recently been battling Comcast  over competition that became a little less than friendly. Qwest settled its dispute by ceasing an ad campaign claiming its service was faster than its rival’s: Ads stated, “72 percent of Internet users agreed its DSL service was as fast or faster than Comcast’s broadband service.” The print, TV and online ad campaign invited users to compare the two services. Qwest claimed the results came from an Internet service test that it conducted in late 2006. Comcast accused Qwest of false and deceptive advertising, saying Qwest wasn’t testing its fastest service against Comcast’s fastest Internet option.

In a case of glass houses and thrown stones, Qwest’s marketing was targeting Comcast’s own ads about the “Slowskys,” turtles who love their DSL.

The battled also included claims that Comcast had blocked Qwest VoIP calls from its network.

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