Vonage Loses on Infringement fighting Against Injunction
Vonage lost relatively big to Verizon last week over a patent case covering three patents that Verizon claimed Vonage had abused by infringing on Verizon’s patents.
Vonage is going to be required to pay $58 million to cover damages to Verizon. Vonage prepared its customers by telling them that this would not hinder their existing service, nor would a harm them financially. They stated that this will not cause any disruption in service with their customers.
Earthlink Connection
One of the patents infringed upon relates to a partnership between Vonage and EarthLink. They have entered into an agreement to provide voice over IP service through WiFi networks. That service could be in question but it’s not certain at this point in time.
The other two infringement areas centered around the actual connection that Vonage uses to connect VOIP to PSTN and the methods that Vonage uses to foreword and collect voice mails.
Vonage proved victorious in defending an infringement claim regarding billing systems.
Injunction?
The next question is whether or not Verizon will be able to successfully proceed with an injunction against Vonage. Injunctions regarding patents are typically more difficult than proving infringement, however analysts are mixed on their views relating to the potential for success by either party.
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March 19th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Verizon is probably targeting a company that is making the largest dent on its US business (most immediate direct threat) and going after a company that has the economic means to pay up if needed. Keep in mind that Skype is probably larger internationally as they moved to the states later.
Verizon doesn’t necessarily want to take a shotgun approach to lawsuits either that would tie up resources, when they can go after a big fish and make an example that possibly sets a precedent that the smaller companies will have to deal with before they form or as they decide to continue.
March 21st, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Someone definitely has it in for Vonage. My feeling is that it goes beyond Verizon.
March 21st, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Its probably those silly looking Orange vans.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
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