Mobile/PDA About Us Advertise here


		User name	Password

		Not registered yet? Register here. Lost your password? Click here.

Browse by topic

News

Vonage guilty of infringing Verizon patents

8 March 2007 16:55 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 2 comments

In less than a day of deliberations, a federal jury has found the VoIP company Vonage guilty of infringing on 3 of 7 VoIP-related patents that are held by Verizon. The jury that heard the case awarded Verizon $58 million USD in damages and stated that Vonage must pay royalties of 5.5 percent to Verizon if it wishes to continue using Verizon's IP.

In a statement after the decision was made, Vonage noted that the jury likely reduced the damages award from the $197 million figure Verizon was seeking because it was ruled that Vonage did not willfully infringe on the patents.Two of the three patents that were infringed were related to billing and not to the actual services.

Vonage says it plans to appeal the verdict and is assuring customers that there will be no interruption in services. They also stated that if Verizon's request for an injunction against Vonage was granted, it would be immediately appealed to make sure service was never interrupted. A hearing for Verizon's requestis to take place on March 23.

In a statement, Verizon said that "We are proud of our inventors and pleased the jury stood up for the legal protections they deserve."

Analysts feel the verdict should make other VoIP providers anxious at the prospet that Verizon will come after them as well, having this decision in their corner. Vonage, currently the biggest VoIP provider in the US, has 2.2 million subscribers.

Source:
Arstechnica

Permalink to this article

Vonage releases VoIP apps for iPhone, BlackBerry (5 October 2009)

EFF worried patent reform will halt watchdog project (6 February 2008)

Vonage and Nortel settle patent dispute (31 December 2007)

Vonage and AT&T settle over VoIP patents (23 December 2007)

« Previous news article
Verbatim warns about misleading DVD media

Next news article »
Blockbuster subscribers reporting problems

Post your comment

Discuss this article!
Blackjax (Member) 8 March 2007 19:22
oo ooo oo oo ooo oo ooo oo oo ooo "theme song from commercial" can you say rising rates for vonage customers! [ + quote]
jetyi83 (Member) 10 March 2007 14:50
ill bet you rates dont change... and that vonage can actually lessen the fee somehow. patents on billing? thats just retarded. [ + quote]