Vonage Loses VoIP Case With Verizon

cdrudge writes "A federal jury on Thursday said Vonage Holdings Corp. violated 3 of 5 patents of Verizon Communications Inc. and ordered the upstart Internet-phone company to pay $58m in damages as well as 5.5% in royalty fees per month per customer. Verizon said it would seek an injunction to block Vonage from using its patented technology. The jury did reject Verizon's claim of $200m in damages and that Vonage deliberately violated Verizon's patents. As you might expect, Vonage said it would appeal the decision and seek a stay if an injunction is granted. Judge Claude Hilton set a hearing for March 23 on whether to grant an injunction."

Re:Hmmm...

[MightyYar]

I was actually thinking in the opposite direction - I might just get rid of my Verizon DSL to vote with my dollars. The cable company offers Cable/Internet/Phone for $99. I have Vonage currently, and I like it a lot. I hope this doesn't kill them off.

Re:Hmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had Vonage since almost the very start of their service and it has been awesome. I pay 17 bucks a month and I have never come close to using all of my time, whereas I used to pay around 50 bucks a month at least when I used a standard landline. I can call anywhere in the US at anytime of day and not have to worry about the charges.

Vonage has completely liberated my phone usage.

Right...

[tomstdenis]

"Patents encourage and protect innovations that benefit consumers, create jobs, and keep the economy growing," said John Thorne, Verizon deputy general counsel, in a statement. "Verizon's innovations are central to its strategy of building the best communications networks in the world."

So they want to put Vonage out of business to .. um ... keep the economy going and create jobs? Why not just do the sensible thing [sadly in this case] and either buy out Vonage, or license the patents to them.

Though, the idea of "phone calls over the net" isn't exactly non-obvious or new. It would have been nice if the article could cite the patents they are violating....

Oh well..

5.5% in royalty fees per month per customer?

[r_jensen11]

How is Vonage supposed to have any revenues if an injunction is imposed? I suppose they could write some new code that doesn't infringe on the patent, but how would Verizon have any claim to the revenues?

Can't someone else proove prior art on this

[caller9]

Surely Verizon wasn't the first company to do VoIP. They've patented hooking voip upto a PSTN. Which is the only way that VoIP can work in a mostly PSTN phone system.

Is Cisco's PSTN gateway next? Are they going to sue AT&T/SBC, SuddenLink, RoadRunner, Northland, COX, or the countless others doing the *exact* same thing?

Can someone please slap these trolls with prior art to nullify the patent and take the ammo out of these bastards patent gun. Can you hear me now? Good.

I call shenanigans, get your brooms.

Re:Hmmm...

[hazem]

It clearly doesn't work for everyone.

But, why should you and your wife necessarily have the same number?

And you've presented an interesting opportunity for a new kind of device. It could be a home docking-station/wireless base for a cell phone. You plug it in and any incoming calls would automatically be handled through a cordless phone system. You can then put your cordless phones wherever you want them. Maybe it could take multiple phones and would use a different ring per phone. If it were really smart, it would allow the system to work with multiple phones at a time. So, your cellphone rings and you take it on the wireless extension in the bedroom. Your wife's phone rings too and she takes it on the living room's wireless extension. That was your daughter calling your wife, so when your call is done, you patch into her call so you can talk to your daughter too.

Does this thing already exist?

Re:Hmmm...

[kiwipeso]

Vodafone in germany and soon in new zealand, has a thing called at home. You just txt vodafone from your home area and it locates you.
For about NZ$30, you get free local calls in that 100 meter zone just like a ordinary landline.