Sprint Settles Patent Infringement Suit

...and it doesn't involve Vonage. A subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have settled a lawsuit alleging that Sprint Nextel had infringed on four patents for technology used to display mobile vehicle information on maps. No terms were revealed.

Telecom has been a tough business for a decade. But operations seem to be getting riskier in the service provider business, for reasons that used to be an issue primarily for hardware and software suppliers.