Verizon’s suit vs. Jawa still in court

A lawsuit filed by Verizon Wireless against a Scottsdale cellphone-applications developer in March is not expected to wrap up until May or June, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Both parties in the lawsuit against technology entrepreneur Jason Hope and his company, Jawa, have agreed to participate in an expedited trial process that limits the maximum number of depositions, exhibits and motions each side can file.

Based on the judge’s written instructions, each side will be required to submit a motion for summary judgment and the judge will then rule on each of them.

Jawa provides so-called premium text-messaging services that include ringtones, news alerts, recipes and other content delivered for a fee to a customer’s wireless phone. Once customers sign up, the costs are added monthly to their bills.

In a complaint filed March 7 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, attorneys for Cellco Partnership, which does business as Verizon Wireless, outlined a series of allegations that Jawa targets customers doing Internet searches with links to websites that ask for their cellphone numbers, not making it clear that doing so will trigger monthly charges. Verizon Wireless said Jawa used sophisticated techniques so that its auditors couldn’t discover the deceptive marketing of the premium text-messaging services.

Jawa has fired back with claims that Verizon is trying to destroy Jawa’s reputation so it can monopolize the premium text-messaging market.

A pre-motion conference is scheduled for April 30, and motions for summary judgment are due by May 25.

Meanwhile, Jawa attorneys say Verizon has been keeping the money it collects from Jawa subscribers, a violation of its contract with Jawa.

Anyone using a Jawa text-message service is billed through carriers such as Verizon via the customer’s monthly phone bill.

Under its agreement with Jawa, Verizon is supposed to keep 30 percent of that revenue and pass through 70 percent of it to a group of “aggregators.”

Aggregators enable wireless messages to be delivered to a customer while compiling and transmitting associated charges to the customer’s carrier.

Jawa says Verizon continues to collect fees from Jawa subscribers but is no longer forwarding any of that money to the aggregators.

In a motion submitted to the court on Nov. 23, Jawa attorney Grant Woods asked the judge to force Verizon to produce balance sheets showing what it owes and then pay up.

In his response to the motion, Verizon attorney Marcos Jimenez, based in Florida, argued that Jawa’s allegations of non-payment are subject to dispute and not an appropriate issue to settle via pretrial motions.

“In truth, Jawa’s ‘facts’ section (of its motion) is a series of unverified allegations,” Jimenez said.

The arguments were filed Nov. 23. As of Wednesday, Judge David G. Campbell had not yet issued a ruling.

Reach the reporter at craig.anderson@arizonarepublic .com or 602-444-8681.