Vonage Hit With $69.5M Judgement

andy1307 writes "The Washington Post is reporting that Net telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was ordered in federal court Tuesday to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in damages for infringing on six telecommunications patents owned by competitor Sprint Nextel Corp. In addition to the damages, jurors awarded Sprint Nextel a 5 percent royalty from Vonage on future revenues. It was the second verdict against Vonage this year. A jury in Virginia determined in March that Vonage had violated three Verizon patents in building its Internet phone system. The jury awarded Verizon $58 million in damages plus 5.5 percent royalties on future revenues. Greg Gorbatenko, a telecommunications and media analyst for Jackson Securities, said the decision 'feels like a death knell' for Vonage because future revenue will likely dry up, preventing the company from investing in better technology or improving customer service."

Re:Thats too bad.

[Joe Tie.]

You could try skype with skypein, I don't think it's unlimited, but at prices where it might as well be.

Re:Which patents

[greenbird]

Does anyone know what techniques and technologies Vonage used that Sprint and/or Verizon own patents on?

A ZDNet analysis [zdnet.com] of the disputed Verizon patents 6,104,711 [uspto.gov], 6,282,574 [uspto.gov] and 6,359,880 [uspto.gov].

I haven't been able to find a list of the Sprint patents yet.

Re:Which patents

[greenbird]

From the parent post pdf:

Sprint filed this lawsuit in October of 2005, asserting infringement of sixty-one claims from seven representative patents from its patent portfolio. The patents in suit can be divided into essentially two groups: the '301 Family Patents and the '605 Family Patents. The '301 Family Patents include U.S. Patent Nos. 6,473,429 [uspto.gov] (the '429 Patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,665,294 [uspto.gov] (the '294 Patent), and U.S. Patent No. 6,298,064 [uspto.gov] (the '064 Patent). These three patents are collectively referred to as the '301 Family Patents because they all share an identical written description and drawings with U.S. Patent No. 5,991,301 [uspto.gov] and were filed as continuation applications of the '301 Patent. For priority purposes they all claim the filing date of the '301 Patent, which is September 8, 1995. Each of these patents is entitled "Broadband Telecommunications System," and generally discloses an invention which is "a system for providing virtual connections through an ATM interworking multiplexer on a call- by-call basis." '429 Patent, Abstract.

The '605 Family Patents include U.S. Patent No. 6,452,932 [uspto.gov] (the '932 Patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,304,572 [uspto.gov] (the '572 Patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,463,052 [uspto.gov] (the '052 Patent), and U.S. Patent No. 6,633,561 [uspto.gov] (the '561 Patent). These four patents are collectively referred to as the '605 Family Patents because they all share an identical written description and drawings with U.S. Patent Application No. 08/238,605 (the '605 Application, now abandoned) and were filed as continuation applications to the '605 Application. For priority purposes they all claim the filing date of the '605 Application, which is May 5, 1994. Each of these patents is entitled "Method, System and Apparatus for Telecommunications Control," and generally discloses an invention that "includes a method, system, and apparatus for providing communication control." '932 Patent, Abstract.

Re:And so, the incumbent telcos smugly feel...

[technicalandsocial]

If you want to make a difference and oppose this verdict, cancel any relationship you have with Sprint/Nextel and write them a letter explaining why you are boycotting them.
If you believe in Vonage, show your support to them by subscribing.
Anything else is just ignored.

Re:Damn. And I was just getting to like my Vonage

[Fantastic Lad]

Umm, socialism doesn't work at the huge corporate level either. All socialism does is merge low and middle class into a single peasant class for easier management by the ruling class. The "big players" are eliminated and replaced by the government. There are no consumers left because individualism and choice is gone...not to mention that they no longer have money. Say hello to Big Brother.

Did you catch the part where I said, "if our governing bodies actually served the people who pay for it"? --Cuz, I like to qualify my statements even while ranting. In any case, with respect to Bell, the socialist system DID work and it worked exceptionally well. Whoever told you that socialism doesn't work was lying to you. --With regard to essential services, it works just fine, thank-you very much. How much do YOU have to pay for hospital visits? How many dumb wars has your military industrial complex hurled you into in order to swipe your tax dollars? How many kids are starving and illiterate in YOUR country?

And I'm certainly not against non-essential services competing. If two companies want to develop two different kinds of communication hardware to compete for the big Bell contract, then that's great. When Bell was under the government's thumb, (My thumb), because we have a nice paper vote here, we got to choose. And the whole, "Individualism and Choice" being threatened argument is just so obviously flawed, and can't believe Americans have been so effectively hog-tied by it. It's an emotional argument used by the dark side to trick people into making dumb choices. (I love how the right call the left 'bleeding hearts' when the right is constantly using emotionalism rather than logic to get its way.) But anyway, how does individualism and choice vanish when the Telco actually does what the people tell it to do? Cuz the reality is this: I don't WANT to have to choose between phone companies. I want the POWER to make one phone company do what I want it to do. --That is, an excellent job for a reasonable price. Having this power to make a difference creates choice. But people seem to fear work; they want companies to come to them to offer Red or Green. Lazy. It takes more effort, but the rewards are higher when you think, "I want Blue and I'm willing to make it happen."

Honestly, do you feel more individual power because you can choose which identical telco screws you? --I felt power when I could call up the CRTC (Canadian Radio & Television Commission) and say, "Hi, I just moved into a new place and Bell is telling me that they aren't going to hook me up unless I pay them $500 in advance because the last tenant didn't pay her bill and they think I'm going to do the same thing. This is ridiculous. I've got a business to run." and have them say, "They said that? They're not allowed to do that. You call them back and tell them that you talked to us. If they keep giving you problems, you call me back right away and I'll fix it." "Thanks!"

Problem solved. This is a true story. --And it happened after de-regulation, too. (Some vestiges of the socialist system haven't entirely eroded. But back in the day, such an ass-backwards problem would never have even come up.)

Man, I remember when Bell's customer service actually HELPED people. They didn't try to screw them. They solved problems. Man, what a great period of time. I miss it.

Which is not to say that the conservative creep isn't doing everything it can to destroy Canada. People, through ignorance, keep getting pulled down the conservative path. I've watched a lot of good things become undone over the last twenty years under conservative rule. Things which cost more now and no longer work properly.

You obviously don't live in Canada. And if you turn off US news (read: "propaganda pushed by threatened American oil interests who have a puppet in the White House") about Chavez, and tune into world news on the subject, you might begin to see Venezuela in a new light. I hear they've go