Amid Rich Tehrani's coverage of the brewing patent battle between Rates Technology and Google, Mitel Networks was mentioned as a company that had been sued in the past by Rates for $945-million. Mitel has wasted little time reaching out to bloggers and journalists to emphasize it has an agreement that prevents Rates from suing Mitel or an of its direct or indirect customers and end-users. Mitel spokesman Paul Goyette declined to discuss if Mitel has a licensing agreement with Rates, which apparently has deals with more than 700 companies, including Nortel and Cisco.