Skype Founders Sues eBay for Copyright Violations

September 16, 2009

San Francisco – Niklas Zennstrom and Januus Friis, the founders of Skype, has filed a copyright lawsuit against eBay in the United States District Court of Northern California.

The two sold Skype to eBay for billions in 2005.

Joltid, a company owned by the Skype founders, claims in their lawsuit that by altering and sharing the peer-to-peer code of the free web calling services, they have violated copyright laws.

The Skype founders claims that they maintained ownership of that source code.

The lawsuit came two weeks after eBay announced that they will be selling most of Skype to a consortium of investors led by Silver Lake Partners.

Joltid is seeking an injunction and statutory damages that could reach more than $75 million per day.

Aside from eBay, Joldit also named Silver Lakes Partners and its partners in the buyout, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Skype founders originally sued eBay in a British Court last March and the case is expected to come to trial next year.

EBay said they are confident that they are going to win the case but they are still developing a workaround technology in case of a loss.

John Pluhowski, spokesman for eBay, maintained that the allegations “are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors.”

He added that the transaction remains on track to be closed in the last quarter of 2009.

Joltid did not return a request for comment.