Reglikedomain industry desk

Marchex sued for Skype click-to-call-jacking

Florida satellite firm states Marchex is stealing phone calls from it.

A Florida satellite TV firm has sued Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), alleging that the firm is hijacking Skype calls of people trying to reach the firm (pdf).

A-SAT Inc., d/b/a International Satellite & Antenna Service, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Orlando on Thursday.

If you have Skype installed on your computer, then you’ve seen how phone numbers are automatically turned into links. Clicking on these links calls the phone number through Skype.

As stated by A-SAT, Marchex has a deal with Skype in which the online marketing firm can declare phone numbers it wants to “control” in Skype. It alleges that Marchex researches the phone numbers of its clients’ competitors, and then controls the numbers by forwarding click-to-call Skype calls intended for those numbers to its clients instead.

The five page lawsuit does not show any examples.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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