Vonage Slapped With Another Multimillion-Dollar Patent Penalty
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Shortly after being ordered to pay $58 million to Verizon in a patent suit, voice-over-the-internet phone service Vonage has now been ordered to pay $69.5 million to Sprint Nextel.
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A U.S. jury found that Vonage Holdings  Corp  had infringed patents owned by Sprint Nextel Corp   and ordered the Internet phone company to pay $69.5  million in damages, triggering a 34 percent fall in its shares.
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AT&amp;T filed a lawsuit against VoIP provider Vonage on Friday seeking damages for alleged patent infringement.The lawsuit comes just days after Vonage settled a patent-infringement lawsuit with telecom provider Sprint Nextel.In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, AT&amp;T alleged that Vonage wilfully infringed an AT&amp;T patent related to telephone systems that allow people to make VoIP calls using standard telephone devices.In the legal filing, AT&amp;T said it tried to reach an agreement with Vonage to license the patent, but failed, which forced the lawsuit.Vonage announced on Oct. 8 that it settled its suit with Sprint Nextel for $80 million. As part of that agreement, Vonage agreed to license VoIP patents from Sprint, including more than 100 patents covering technology for connecting calls from a traditional phone network to an IP network.Vonage is also in the process of resolving a patent infringement dispute with Verizon. Earlier this year, a court found&#160;Vonage infringed on Verizon patents&#160;and ordered an injunction that could have prevented Vonage from signing up new customers.&#160;Vonage won an injunction staying the order&#160;and is appealing the original infringement ruling. Vonage in August said it was close to rolling out workarounds for two of the three patents Verizon claimed.Vonage is one of the largest independent VoIP providers in the U.S. with nearly 2.5 million customers.
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AT&T Inc  has filed a patent  infringement lawsuit against Vonage Holdings Corp ,  according to a Vonage regulatory filing on Friday, the latest  legal trouble for the Internet phone service provider.
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Shares of Vonage, the Internet telephone provider, rose sharply after it announced it had settled a patent dispute with Verizon and would have to pay a maximum of $120 million.
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Promises to side-step its way out, again VoIP provider Vonage has lost another patent battle, this time with Sprint Nextel, which owns six infringed patents and stands to gain almost $70m in a court-ordered payout.â¦
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A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a verdict that Vonage Holdings Corp  infringed two patents held by Verizon Communications Inc , the latest legal setback for the loss-making Internet phone company.
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Internet phone company Vonage loses a patent case that could threaten its business.
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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 and Nortel Networks have preliminarily agreed to cross-license several patents, ending a dispute between the companies without any monetary payments, Vonage said Monday.All claims relating to past damages as well as remaining payments will be dismissed, the company said. Documents sealing the agreement have not yet been finalized.The agreement is a minor victory for Vonage. The company has settled or reached tentative agreements in three other patent disputes related to VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and other telecommunications technology for what could ultimately reach $239 million in payments.Vonage tentatively agreed last month to&#160;settle a patent infringement lawsuit filed by rival AT&amp;T&#160;for $39 million. Prior to that deal, Vonage had reached&#160;settlements with Sprint Nextel&#160;for $80 million and&#160;with Verizon Communications&#160;for $80 million to $120 million, depending on the results of an appeal.&#160;
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The networking company says that Vonage is violating nine of its patents, including those related to emergency and information calls, as well as click-to-call functionality.
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A federal court rules that struggling VoIP provider Vonage Holdings infringed on patents owned by Sprint Nextel.
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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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Vonage is getting sued--again. This time telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks says the company has violated nine patents related to its Internet phone service.
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Vonage takes another blow when a Virginia jury found the IP telephony provider infringed on three Verizon patents.
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- Internet-based calling company Vonage Holdings  Corp  said it settled a patent dispute with Nortel.
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Troubled VoIP service provider Vonage is rolling out new products and services at the Consumer Electronics Show in a bid to reverse its downward spiral.Intellectual property lawsuits brought by Nortel, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&amp;T have distracted Vonage for the past year. During that time, customer acquisition slowed, and defections grew to 3 percent in the third quarter last year.But Vonage says it is ready to turn a corner. The suits were a weapon that the phone companies used to defend their businesses in the face of competition from Vonage, said Jeffrey Citron, chairman, chief strategist and interim CEO at Vonage. &quot;It was a successful strategy. It distracted us and slowed us down,&quot; he said. &quot;Instead of rolling out MyVonage six months ago, we were dealing with workarounds.&quot; MyVonage is the name of a new campaign at the company to introduce a host of services geared toward customer lifestyles.While the lawsuits were ongoing, the company was developing workaround technology that would allow its business to move forward without infringing on the relevant patents. Vonage has now settled all four major lawsuits against it.That has left Vonage free to spend more time focusing on its business, said Citron. It hired new engineers who designed a router, the first time Vonage will sell its own router rather than one from Cisco or Motorola.The router has an unusual feature: a screen. It displays information about problems that the modem might have in plain language. For instance, rather than showing a flashing light like most routers, this one displays words telling users that the Ethernet cable is unplugged.New customers will be able to buy the V-Portal router online starting Wednesday for $9.99 after rebates.In addition to the new router, Vonage is beginning to roll out many new features that it is showcasing at alpha.vonage.com. For instance, customers can now use voice-activated dialing, simply speaking a name to place a call. Customers can also send a voice message to anyone via e-mail. The message arrives as an attached audio file.Call blast is a new feature that lets customers send out a voice mail simultaneously to a group of people. Citron anticipates that will be useful when he&#39;s in charge of calling 15 kids who go to school with his kids to tell them there is a snow day.&quot;We expect to roll out a new capability every month or two,&quot; Citron said.Vonage also plans to offer another service that lets users access the voice recognition system from any phone to make a call through Vonage. The company is also testing software that would let customers make Vonage calls via software on their laptops.Many of these services are free to Vonage customers.Citron said that the future for Vonage will be brighter. Despite continued high churn, last quarter it had a gain of 77,000 customers, which he says isn&#39;t as good as it should be. The company has worked to cut costs, and improvements in customer service should help decrease customer losses, he said.In the meantime, speculation continues to circle that the payouts Vonage made to settle the lawsuits will cripple it. But Citron was confident that the company&#39;s troubles are behind it.