Good to see good ideas being funded. SIPphone has secured $6 million in funding to expand its Session-Initiated Protocol (SIP) standard service to non-PC devices such as adapters, routers, WiFi handsets and dual mode mobile phones. SIPphone is the developer of the open-source Gizmo Project, a peer-to-peer VoIP network. The company provides free VoIP Gizmo Project software for Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers, which allow for free calling and IM world-wide using any Internet connected computer. "The release of Gizmo Project has driven over 400,000 registered users to our PC-based service, but our goals go beyond free calls between PCs," said SIPphone CEO Michael Robertson. "We want to seamlessly link the Internet and the traditional calling world of landlines and mobile phones, and that's becoming possible as low cost SIP-based devices such as dual-mode mobile phones and WiFi phones become a reality."

The financing round was led by New York-based venture firm Dawntreader Ventures and is the first external funding for SIPphone. In addition to expanding its VoIP platform to non-PC portable devices, SIPphone will aggressively promote adoption of the open standard auto-provisioning system plug-and-dial.

For more on SIPphone:
- see this TechNewsWorld report
- and see SIPphone's Web site

PLUS: Symbol Technologies has signed a licensing agreement with Terabeam, the parent company of Proxim Wireless, settling long-standing patent litigation between the two companies. The agreement calls for San Jose, CA-based Terabeam to pay Holtsville, NY-based Symbol $4.3 million to license certain Symbol patents related to 802.11 and transfer certain patents to Symbol and provide Symbol a license for certain Terabeam wireless patents. The licensing agreement continues for the life of the patents. If nothing else, the agreement is reassuring to nostalgia buffs: Symbol created the first commercially available WLAN in 1989, and in 1993 submitted a joint technical proposal which was accepted by the IEEE as the base of the 802.11 standard. Report

ALSO: As one legal battle is settled, another one erupts: AirDefense and AirTight Networks are each accusing the other of making misleading statements about their respective patent portfolios, with AirTight rebuffing AirDefense's claims that its new patent is unenforceable. The companies are heading for the courts. Report