Sprint in court around $3.5 B Clearwire WiMAX pact

Not everybody stands in favor of the WiMAX deal rolled out by Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, and five industry partners last week. Now an affiliate in Illinois is taking Sprint to court in connection with the $3.5 billion wireless pact.

The affiliate, iPCS, charges that Sprint's WiMAX agreement with Clearwire and five other companies -- Google, Intel Capital, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks -- violates exclusivity agreements within its own affiliation contract with Sprint.

The lawsuit also contends that the still financially beleaguered Sprint is trying to sidestep a circuit court ruling ordering the big wireless provider to stop operating and managing the Nortel network in areas where iPCS does business.

According to a Sprint spokesperson, the suit by iPCS was prompted by a request made by Sprint to the court in Illinois, seeking a declaratory judgment that its affiliate agreement will not prevent operation of the "new Clearwire" in iPCS territory.

Sprint is certainly no stranger to courtroom scenes, where it has often sat in the plaintiff's rather than the defendant's seat, where litigation typically pays off a little better. In January of this year, for example, Sprint filed lawsuits against four smaller phone companies in Kansas, charging that the companies had infringed on Sprint's voice over packets (VOP) patents.

And in similar suits filed back in 2005 and 2006, Sprint was awarded monetary damages from both Vonage Holdings and Voiceglo Communications. Vonage agreed to take a license under Sprint's VOP portfolio and paid $80 million to Sprint. Voiceglo settled the case for an undisclosed sum, also in exchange for access to Sprint's VOP portfolio.