Vonage Signs Deal to Escape Patent Infringement

Tone Def writes "In the wake of a court injunction barring Vonage from infringing on three Verizon patents, the VoIP provider has signed an agreement with VoIP, Inc. to carry all Vonage calls over its network. Two of the Verizon patents Vonage was found to have infringed covered connecting VoIP calls to switched networks, so the agreement means Vonage is no longer infringing those patents. 'By signing the agreement with VoIP, Inc., Vonage has provided itself with a measure of protection against the injunction. VoIP, Inc. owns its own network, describing VOICEONE as the "first, seamless nationwide IP network." Perhaps most crucially from Vonage's standpoint, VoIP, Inc. claims to own the intellectual property around its network and services.'"

VoIP calls from WiFi Phones?

[Paulrothrock]

How can you patent something like that? Could I patent "VoIP calls from Ethernet connected phones" or "VoIP calls from token-ring connected phones?" Something also tells me Verizon only patented this so that they could squash competition and keep their increasingly useless POTS system viable.

This just shows how our patent system is completely incompatible with TCP/IP. If you can patent one layer of the stack, you can halt innovation on other systems.

Also, aren't there Skype phones that do this? Why isn't Verizon suing them?

et another ridiculous summary headline...

[Raistlin77]

C'mon Zonk, seriously. "Vonage signs deal to excape patent infringement"?! They've already been ruled against, so no deal would allow them to "escape patent infringement", aside from a deal with Verizon. It merely allows them to continue operating whether the judge rules to enforce the injunction against them now or allow them to appeal first.

Seriously, can we get some editors that are worth a damn!

Re:VoIP calls from WiFi Phones?

[teh_chrizzle]

Also, aren't there Skype phones that do this? Why isn't Verizon suing them?

don't worry, once a sufficiently large portion of the customer disconnections are attributed to skype, they too will be sued.

it's importnat, however, to wait for the "infringer" in question to get close to profitability before slapping the infringment case on them.

The whole case was BS

[Anonymous Coward]

All the old telcos are circling the drain and this was an attempt by one of the most useless ones to stem the tide. I used to deal with them when they were still GTE and let me tell you, they made AT&T look like saints. I have some advice for Verizon and anyone else who wants to take this tack. You aren't saving yourselves. You aren't making companies like Vonage look bad and by association making yourself look better. You are hastening your own demise.

Hop over your chinese firewall and talk to your wireless unit. The per minute model is dead. It's price and services/$ that drive consumers. Land lines aren't convenient, face it so that just leaves price and services. All the telcos still charge for "extras" like caller ID, voicemail and long distance plans. Theres also always the dreaded "big bill" in a month where there was a family emergency or reason to make a lot of long distance calls. Consumers know your game and that's why cellular and VoIP is becoming more popular. Wanna win in the long run? Offer a service similar to Vonage for less money, or for the same or a little more with more services. Anything else is just shooting yourself in the foot in the long run.

Pure FUD.

[Belial6]

Pure FUD. POTS is referring to the analog service that is provided by the incumbent phone companies. If the existing analog service disappeared tomorrow, you would just see a rise in competition from digital services. You would also see better SLAs from digital providers. The biggest problems with things like 911 on Vonage are not caused because Vonage cannot or will not provide the service. It is caused because the current POTS providers put up actual road blocks to prevent interoperability. Once set up, my ISP has had 99.9% up-time. I have lived in places in the US that had worse up-time. My cell phone has never been down when I tried to use it inside my home. The whole, "Your going to die if you don't pay the incumbent phone company." line is FUD. Pure FUD. When you stop leaving the safety of your POTS, then you can talk. I personally leave my home on occasion, and thus have no access to 911 via my POTS line.