San Francisco - Verizon Wireless briefly removed, then reinstated Bob Marley ringtones on its service this week, while caught in the throes of a licensing dispute between Universal Music Group and the estate of the deceased reggae legend, CNET News.com reported.

Marley's estate threatened to sue Verizon last month for offering Marley ringtones, saying it had not approved the deal between the wireless carrier and Universal, which owns the rights to much of Marley's catalog.

Verizon recently removed the Universal-owned track ringtones, 30,000 of which had been sold in the less than two weeks they were available, a Universal spokesman told News.com.

Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, a spokesman for Marley's family, then issued a statement saying he was "infuriated that Verizon would go around the estate and initiate partnership with Universal."

Verizon cited that statement in its decision to repost the Marley ringtones.

"We had earlier this week decided to take the content down temporarily to give the Marley estate and Universal time to work out their differences," Verizon spokesman James Gerace told News.com.

"Now, in light of that statement, we'll be putting that content back up tomorrow."

Blackwell later told News.com that Marley's estate would move forward with lawsuits against both Verizon and Universal Music Group.

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