Andre Yoskowitz
8 Mar 2007 16:55
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