Mitel sues ShoreTel - What does it mean?

June 28, 2007
ShoreTelMitelSome fellow TMCers were emailing back-and-forth about the Mitel lawsuit against Shoretel just before Shoretel launched their IPO. A few moments later, Jon Arnold emailed me, a bunch of TMCers, Om, VoIPCentral, Ken Camp, Russell Shaw, and a few other bloggers & journalists about this bit of news and what it meant. Go check out Jon's post here where he makes an analogy to the Verizon lawsuit against Vonage, another VoIP player around the time of their IPO.

As a result of the lawsuit, the ShoreTel IPO is up in the air.

My email response to everyone in the thread was "Interesting indeed.. -that is, for mid-tier IP-PBX vendors fighting over the scraps that tier-1 IP-PBXs such as Cisco are leaving behind."

And then you have up-and-coming whipper snappers like Asterisk and Asterisk-based solutions such as Fonality, trixbox, etc. that have continued to take more market share in the IP-PBX space.

Andy wrote back "This is interesting and Tom's comment makes me think that we are at a point where innovation is slowing down."

What say you all? Is innovation in VoIP slowing down? Are we entering an era where VoIP players squabbling for the scraps from Longshank's (Cisco's & Asterisk's?) table? (Braveheart reference)

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Comments to Mitel sues ShoreTel - What does it mean?


  1. John M. :
    June 28, 2007 6:54 PM

    Another case of a broken patent system. Also I know it's a cut throat world but this seems like a low blow on the part of mitel...it was obviously intended to cause maximum financial damage and I would hope a countersuit is in the works. It's funny they don't have the balls to name cisco, etc in their suit.


  1. Mike Harrigan :
    June 28, 2007 7:25 PM

    This is in regards to the Mitel lawsuit against ShoreTel. If you haven't done so already, read the patents that Mitel has called out. They are very broad - I'm surprised that they were allowed as patents. As an example, one of them is a patent for using a PC on a LAN with a telephone system to do call control. Another is for automatically producing a web page based on a database of names and telephone numbers. Virtually every telephone system and voice mail system out there are probably in violation of these patents. Isn't it interesting that Mitel chose to sue only ShoreTel and on the very day that the company planned their IPO? Just coincidence, I'm sure. Personally I'm sick of unscrupulous (but technically legal) business practices and I urge everyone to avoid Mitel for the very reason that they practice these strategies.

    My message to Mitel: your efforts would be better spent on creating great products rather than attempting to patent everything you can think of and spending your lives looking for companies to sue. It's a new day in business - get on board.

    My message to ShoreTel: Your products rock. Keep up the great work and don't let idiotic business strategies like Mitel's get you down.


  1. John :
    June 29, 2007 8:25 PM

    I might design a VoIP system based on some functions that ShoreTel have,but what I'll do is improve them!! Is that fair of me??!!


  1. Anders Couse :
    July 9, 2007 10:31 AM

    Wow - does anyone know what is set to happen to ShoreTel if they lose the patent infringement suit?

    I am holding onto my RFP for now as ShoreTel and Mitel were both finalists. I considered them both to have good product.

    Luckily I can hold off as my older system(InterTel) will continue to work while things shake out.

    If forced to make a decision today, I wouldn't go with ShoreTel. I am not sure I would go with Mitel either but I am nervous about the future of ShoreTel if they do lose the suit.

    I am not sure how I feel about 'low blow' of the suit but hey - if someone stole my intellectual property - I think I'd the same thing.


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