Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Vonage loses VoIP case to Sprint Nextel

New Jersey-based Vonage, having lost a patent case to Verizon, now has lost to Sprint. Vonage shares dropped one third.

Forbes reported on 9/25:

After three weeks of testimony and two days of deliberations, the Kansas City jurors determined that Vonage deliberately violated the patents. U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum could triple the damages if he agrees with the decision.

The damages were $69.5 million for infringing on six of Sprint's patents.

**See also AP report on Verizon case-->

Vonage Patent Ruling Partly Upheld, which included:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [CAFC], which hears patent cases from around the country, partially upheld the March verdict [in the Verizon case], directing the trial court to reconsider the verdict on one of the three patents. It also remanded the damages and royalty awards for the lower court to decide.

The awards were remanded because the lower court did not specify which portion of the damages was attributable to which patent, Blair Levin, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said in a note to investors.

The appeals court found that the district court improperly construed part of the third patent, which involves wireless access to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Vonage spokesman Charles Sahner said the technology pertains to less than 10 percent of the company's customers.

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

It is likely that between this mess and the Sunrocket melt down – many people will be scared off by any VoIP services provider and so stem this likely erosion, service providers will undoubtedly begin to come up with great deals. I for one, am glad. I want to switch to a company that I feel won’t go under and I found an unadvertised special from Net2Phone that seems good. 3 months free and then $19.95 per month thereafter. They seem to be one of the first to have been in this market (for 12 years) and they are well funded by IDT. Anyone have any experience with them?

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

free service for you to meet by telephone with your customers, relatives or colleagues.
^_^
free conference call

8:20 PM  

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