A US federal judge has thrown out an antitrust lawsuit filed by the distributor of Morpheus file-sharing software against Internet phone service provider Skype Technologies, eBay, and other defendants, an Associated Press report said.
The report said StreamCast Networks had sought more than $4.1 billion in unspecified damages and a court order blocking eBay from selling Skype services.
StreamCast claimed the founders of Skype broke an agreement to give StreamCast the right of first refusal for the technology behind Skype's VoIP service, the Associated Press report said.
The report said in her ruling on a motion for dismissal, US District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper concluded that StreamCast failed to make its case for relief under federal antitrust laws and dismissed all claims against Skype, eBay and more than a dozen other defendants.
Cooper declined to exercise discretionary jurisdiction to consider state law claims such as unfair competition and fraudulent transfer, the report said.
Matthew A. Neco, StreamCast's general counsel, said the company will either appeal the ruling or seek to pursue claims in state court.