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New York-based patent-holding company Klausner Technologies has announced that it has become the latest plaintiff suing Apple Computer and AT&T, this time for alleged patent infringements related to the iPhone.

Klausner holds U.S. patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818. The patents basically describe a system that allows for visual retrieval and sorting of voicemail via a display.

According to the suit, filed in a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, the iPhone violates Klausner's intellectual property rights by allowing the user to retrieve voice messages selectively via the iPhone's inbox display, the suit alleges.

"We have litigated this patent successfully on two prior occasions," said Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner, counsel for Klausner. "With the signing of each new licensee, we continue to receive further confirmation of the strength of our visual voicemail patents."

The two patents in question are numbers 5,572,576 and 5,283,818, both titled "Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message." The patents were filed for in 1992 and issued in 1994 and 1995.

Klausner has already prompted Vonage and Time Warner's AOL to license the technology for their voice mail services. The AOL agreement came only after Klausner sued AOL, seeking USD 200 million; Vonage settled with the firm after being hit with an action seeking USD 180 million in early 2006.

Klausner Technologies is seeking both damages and future royalties that it estimates amount to as much as USD 360 million.

Klausner also attacked Comcast's Digital Voice Voicemail, Cablevision Systems' Optimum Voicemail, and Ebay's Skype, filing a separate lawsuit in the same court, on the same day. The second suit cites infringement on the same patents and seeks from the group of infringers a barely lighter USD 300M.

Ilan Barzilay, a member of Wolf Greenfield's Litigation Practice Group who litigates a variety of intellectual property cases, said Klausner has zeroed in on its alleged infringers and is looking for a payday. "Klausner has a couple of settlements under its belt with big players, which is always key. If the big players aren't willing to put up a fight, there is probably something there that the competition needs to be afraid of."

Unfortunately for Apple, Klausner is just one legal enemy of its much criticized iPhone. Apple is facing class action suits for its iBricking and "monopolistic behavior", suits over the iPhones battery, an environmental lawsuit from activist organization Greenpeace, and complaints of iFires.