Vonage loses net phone patents
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Internet phone company Vonage loses a patent case that could threaten its business.
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For the second time in two days, Internet phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was hit with bad legal news Wednesday when a federal appeals court upheld a jury verdict and injunction against it for patent infringement.
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Beleaguered Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. disclosed Friday it is being sued by AT&T Inc. for alleged patent infringement.
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NEW YORK -   Verizon and Vonage on Wednesday will present opening statements in a patent-infringement case that could have a big impact on consumers and the nascent Internet telephone industry. Most immediately at risk is the future of Vonage.
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A patent infringement lawsuit filed by AT&amp;T against voice-over-IP telephony provider-Vonage has been settled, Vonage said late Friday.The settlement brings an unusually speedy end to&#160;the lawsuit filed by AT&amp;T on Oct. 17. It alleged Vonage wilfully infringed an AT&amp;T patent related to telephone systems that allow people to make VOIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) calls using standard telephone devices. A breakdown in talks between the two companies over the issue led to the lawsuit, AT&amp;T said&#160;at the time.Less than a month later, on Nov. 7, the two companies said they had&#160;tentatively agreed to a settlement. At that time Vonage said it would pay AT&amp;T around $39 million under the terms of the settlement.Final terms were not disclosed on Friday when, in a brief statement, Vonage said the dispute had been settled.Vonage previously&#160;settled a patent suit with Verizon&#160;for $80 million to $120 million, depending on the results of its appeal of a court ruling on two patents, and with Sprint Nextel for $80 million. As part of the Sprint Nextel deal Vonage agreed to license more than 100 patents covering technology for connecting calls from a traditional phone network to an IP network. The Verizon settlement came after a court found Vonage had infringed upon the carrier&#39;s patents.&#160;
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ALEXANDRIA, Virginia  - A federal jury on Thursday found that Vonage Holdings Corp. , an Internet phone service provider, infringed on three key patents owned by Verizon Communications Inc. .
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Internet phone company Vonage infringed on three patents held by Verizon Communications and must pay $58 million plus possible future royalties to its competitor, a jury said yesterday.
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InfoWorld - Vonage Holdings lost less money in the fourth quarter of 2006 than a year earlier, but it didn&#39;t attract as many new subscribers to its VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service despite heavy marketing.
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Internet phone service provider Vonage  Holdings Corp.  on Monday said it has been served with a  patent infringement lawsuit filed by two units of Verizon  Communications Inc. .
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By JEFF ST. ONGE and AMY THOMSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS Vonage Holdings Corp. must pay $58 million plus monthly royalties to Verizon Communications Inc. for infringing three patents on Internet-telephone service, a federal jury ruled Thursday. Vonage shares fell to their lowest ever.
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We will survive Vonage today moved to reassure its two million customers that their internet phone service will not be disrupted and investors that their cash will be safe if it loses a patent lawsuit to Verizon.â¦
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Vonage Holdings Corp  said on  Tuesday that it will appeal a U.S. jury verdict that it  willfully infringed patents belonging to Sprint Nextel Corp   and that it pay $69.5 million in damages.
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Verizon Communications won an appeals court ruling yesterday upholding most of a patent verdict over smaller rival Vonage Holdings, the second legal setback for the Internet phone company in as many days.
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'Sprint and Verizon got nothin' on us' Yet another big-name telco has sued Vonage for patent infringement.â¦
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According to Vonage, rumors of its demise due to its ongoing patent litigation with Verizon have been greatly exaggerated. Vonage is accused by Verizon of violating seven even patents covering telephone features and the use of Wi-Fi to place telephone calls.
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A federal jury has found that Vonage has infringed on three patents owned by Verizon and ordered the Internet telephony company to pay damages of $58 million, in addition to a 5.5 percent royalty on all future Vonage sales.
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(InfoWorld) - Shares of Vonag plunged Friday in the wake ofÂ a patent-infringement ruling against the companyÂ that some analysts called a grim outcome for the VoIP service provider. Vonage stock fell $0.69 to $4.17 on the New York Stock Exchange, losing more than 14 percent of its value, after a jury decided on Thursday that the company infringed three Verizon patents on commercial VoIP services technology. Vonage was ordered to pay $58 million in damages and a 5.5 percent royalty rate on future sales. Verizon also is seeking a permanent injunction to keep Vonage from using the technologies. Vonage plans to appeal. The ruling comes after a string of setbacks for the scrappy service provider, which has yet to make a profit. Vonage was founded in 2001 and has built up its customer base to more than 2.2 million through heavy investments in marketing. Along the way, it has become the most visible independent provider of VoIP, which puts voice calls on data lines for lower cost and some extra features. TheÂ company has claimed Verizon sued in order to eliminate a competitor to the traditional circuit-switched phone service that is its bread and butter. Although the judgment is not very big compared to some, it could be devastating to Vonage if it stands, analysts said. "It's a drop in the bucket, but they need every cent they can get," said Will Stofega, a VoIP analyst at IDC. The company is already dealing with shareholder lawsuits over its disappointing IPO last year along with difficulty meeting regulatory requirements like E911 emergency service and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, he said. The $58 million sum is about as much as the company is losing every quarter, Ovum analyst Jan Dawson pointed out in a research note on Friday. Vonage lost $65 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. "As this case gets more coverage, potential customers will be worried about signing up for new service with Vonage, and existing customers may churn in larger numbers than usual. Both of these effects would be disastrous for Vonage," Dawson wrote. Verizon might also go after other VoIP providers for infringing the patents, Stofega said. Big providers like the cable operators could absorb royalties, but smaller independent players would be even more vulnerable than Vonage. Already, regulatory requirements and "a race to the bottom" on pricing are threatening the stand-alone VoIP service business, he said. In a few years, many more people will be using the technology, but VoIP companies as such may become a thing of the past. Jeff Pulver, a longtime VoIP booster who co-founded Vonage before leaving the company, was more optimistic in an entry on The Jeff Pulver Blog, in which he called the ruling "the end of the seventh inning," a reference to baseball, which has nine innings. "This isn't the end of the battle," Pulver wrote. "I hope and trust this decision does not curb innovation and progress in VoIP and other Internet communications products, services, and applications."