The proposed sale of 65 percent of Skype by eBay to a group of investors led by Silver Lake could possibly be wrecked by a new intellectual property lawsuit filed this week, against former Joost CEO Michaelangelo Volpi and venture capital firm Index Ventures Management. 

The lawsuit, filed by Joost and Joltid - companies owned by the Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, charges ex-Joost CEO Volpi with violation of fiduciary duty, interference with prospective business advantage, misuse of trade secrets, and civil conspiracy.

Volpi had left Joost earlier this year to join Index Ventures - one of the organizations that agreed to buy a stake in Skype from eBay. 

The lawsuit raises questions about the control and ownership of Skype; as Skype neither owns its core P2P technology, nor has access to the source code; and the company’s founders are reportedly attempting to rip that IP out of the service.

Parts of the filing go thus: “A source code version of the GI Software is licensed by Joltid to Joost -- and an executable-only object code form of the GI Software was licensed by Joltid to Skype.” Since Skype did not obtain a license to the code, it breached the license agreement.

Apparently, the lawsuit does not have much to do with Volpi and Index Ventures – it actually follows an earlier suit filed by Joltid, charging Skype, eBay, Silver Lake Partners and others with copyright infringement.