Vonage May Have Way Around Patent Disputes

nevillethedevil writes "Bloomberg is reporting that Vonage may have found a way around the current patent issues they have been facing with Verizon and others. They are applying technological solutions to a legal problem, changing the way that Vonage's communications software operates at a basic level to ensure that they no longer infringe on patent claims. 'Vonage's new technology can be installed through software downloads and shouldn't be costly to deploy, Citron said. The company will continue to appeal the court decision that requires it to pay Verizon damages for infringing patents on technology that translates Internet-based calls to standard lines.'"

Hired SCO Developers

[Black-Man (198831)]

With their vast experience of finding copywrite-infringing code - they found the offending 3 lines of codes in a few hours. // Copywrite 1997 Bell Atlantic
if (switch = "5eSS") {
phone_home("Bell Atlantic Law Dept", hostname);
} //

Two Useful Links

[asphaltjesus (978804)]

Of course there's a way around it! It's software after all.

I worked in a company that did software in the banking/finance world and the lawyer literally spent all her time working with engineering to figure ways around patents or otherwise write code that stuck to as many standards as legally possible.

Apparently this presented great complexity from a coding perspective.

Two informative links for those that want a bit of substantive background on the topic.
http://ipurbia.com/2007/03/verizon-patent-analysis .html [ipurbia.com]

http://herot.typepad.com/cherot/2007/04/verizon_se rvice.html [typepad.com]

That this kind of litigation has to happen at all is another indicator of how bad the business climate is in the U.S.

Re:

[arivanov (12034)]

I would read the background in the links with a grain of salt. The author of the top one missed the well known industry fact of "Noone in his sane mind sues Level3 on VOIP IP". I bet a lot of people had the itch, but AFAIK noone ever did.

The reason is that Level3 once upon a time bought one of the first softswitch developers. AFAIK it ever tried to use it in production, but it can still use it as a great defensive legal weapon.

If Verizon tries to sue Level3 it will be presented with code which does what is

Missing The Point

[asphaltjesus (978804)]

If Verizon tries to sue Level3 it will be presented with code which does what is described in some of their patents and is dated at least several years prior to that.

I wish Verizon would sue Level3, but they won't. They'll sue every ISP/VOIP provider that doesn't pay the Verizon Patent Tax. That costs them a couple of lawyers salaries for a huge return.

Short-term solution

[interiot (50685)]

This just means that 1) Vonage's new implementation could unknowingly fall under somebody else's patent, and they'd have to play the whole game over again, and 2) Vonage will patent their new implementation (to try to avoid this mess again, since that will at least make it so that only pre-May-2007 patents can sink Vonage), but that will just cause more headaches for the next organization who thinks that implementing VoIP/POTS integration can be done in an obvious / non-patentable way.

patent workarounds...

[moochfish (822730)]

How come you read about companies violating patents one day and then finding "work arounds" the next? Seriously, if a patented technology is a crucial component in an application, how is it that the expected reaction is to bypasses it and yet keep the application functioning *exactly* like it was before.

If that doesn't show that software patents are bogus, I don't know what will.

Re:

[CodeMunch (95290)]

OR if you need to work harder(devise ridiculous scheme) to not use the OBVIOUS solution, the patent is heading on a path of self-invalidation, isn't it?

Re:

[PitaBred (632671)]

Where is your proof for your second claim? It MAY produce a better, more efficient solution, but a "work around" is just that, working around a roadblock. I would really doubt that it often creates better solutions. And your third claim is just bullshit.

Go Vonage!

[Nom du Keyboard (633989)]

Go Vonage. I doubt anyone believes for a moment that Verizon is doing anything with these patents to make VoIP calls, cheaper, better, or easier to use. Most likely just the opposite -- which is completely anti-consumer!

Re:

[liam193 (571414)]

Not exactly. Actually, in the USA it is for neither of those reasons.

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

The key portion here is the reason for which Congress is allowed to secure the rights to authors and inventors. The purpose is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. I think the problem that many who post on here have with patent and copyright laws in

Re:Totally Off-topic

[stinerman (812158)]

What ad [adblockplus.org]?

Re:Totally Off-topic

[MindStalker (22827)]

Because slashdot has sold out!!

Actually slashdot uses some dynamic ads that simply trust the ad provider won't do shit like that. The admins here will fix it soon I bet.

Re:

[Cro Magnon (467622)]

I don't see that ad. However, awhile back I saw some sort of moving ad zipping across the screen. Reminded me of those "punch the monkey" ads. I closed the browser and went off to another site. I suppose I should have noticed WTF the ad was, so I know NEVER to buy anything from that company!

Re:

[rts008 (812749)]

Adblock and Noscript are your Firefox friends!

Thanks to them, I barely remember what you are complaining about....give them a try!

Re:

[Sergey23 (1055324)]

I'm viewing this on a machine running XP and the same damned thing happens.

Re:

[XiticiX (712612)]

Nah I'm using XP and whatever most recent version of flash is. I hate it when ads interfere with websites. If this wasn't /., I wouldn't be coming back.

Re:

[geekoid (135745)]

What's special about this site? Not tired of Russia verbing you?

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

it's happening in lynx too.

wait that's a smudge on the screen.

Re:

[eclectro (227083)]

The could just tape a speaker to a phone, unless at&t has a patent on that too.

Well there's always two cans and a string. Unless some kid has a patent on that too.

Re:

[lothar97 (768215)]

I have to agree with this one, it's likely that whatever they're doing may infringe someone else's patent. Then again, perhaps Vonage has learned its lesson and have properly licensed the new technology that is being implemented.

A final point, Vonage better beware of the doctrine of equivalents [wikipedia.org]. The doctrine of equivalents holds a party liable for patent infringement even if the infringing device/process does not fall within the literal scope of the patent's claims, but accomplishes the equivalent to th

Re:

[Mr2001 (90979)]

Is that doctrine actually good for anything besides stifling innovation? I mean, shouldn't we be encouraging people to come up with new methods that produce the same result in a way that isn't already patented?

Re:

[p00pyhead (945377)]

Vonage has at least two problems.
1. They operate like Big-Business (2.5 million customers, and losing money like a drunken sailor)
2. Vonage is destoying Big-Telco's cash cow.

I think the technology is great, but Vonage will be taken down by people who have too much to lose if IP telephony becomes more prevalent and prices keep falling.

Thankfully, this tided will not be stopped. They are at least half a dozen vonages on the internet, and hundreds of vonages to come... until Telephone becomes just like today'

Re:

[phoenix.bam! (642635)]

Full of penis enlargement advertisements?

I sure hope not.

Offtopic Trivial Info Message:

[rts008 (812749)]

"....bathe a stray tom cat."

Try a window screen. As long as the screen itself is not resting on a solid surface (ie: up on small blocks) this works most of the time. The theory is that the cat will cling to the screen and allow you to bathe, examine, draw blood, admin meds, etc. Works amazingly well!

why yes IAAVT (I Am A Veterinary Technician)!

Re:Heads up, Vonage is a scam

[citizentim (1046970)]

I'm sure the cancellation mess was frustrating, but I take exception to your assessment of the quality of Vonage's phone service. I have no idea why you had so many problems with yours, but I have been using Vonage for nearly two years now, and it is by far the best phone service I have ever used. The calls are nearly always crystal clear, except when I have a bittorrent session running, thus sucking up all my bandwidth. It never loses its connectivity, unless I lose power. The call-forwarding and simul-ring features have made managing my phone numbers incredibly easier, and the convenience of receiving my voicemail through e-mail is wonderful. Free overseas calls (at least to some countries), and you can take your home phone with you wherever you go, given the right VOIP adapter. Adding a second phone number is a piece of cake (although admittedly having a secondary number converted to a primary number is quite cumbersome, and requires a good amount of arguing with some blokes ostensibly in India). I have even been able to use a modem through it with no trouble (after dialing *99). I've gotten several months of free service by referring other folks to Vonage, who have also been very happy with the service. There may certainly be better VOIP providers than Vonage (I really don't know), but I would highly encourage anyone here to ignore this comment, as I am quite sure there are many other customers who have had a great experience with them.