Vonage Loses in Verizon Patent Case
546180
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.
643787
NEW YORK - Vonage Holdings Corp., the beleaguered provider of Internet-based phone service, said yesterday it has settled a patent lawsuit brought by Verizon Communications Inc. for a maximum of $120 million.
362727
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.
11498
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¦
672327
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.
433474
(InfoWorld) - A federal court ruled on Tuesday that struggling VoIP provider Vonage infringed on patents owned by Sprint Nextel. Jurors in the U.S. District Court in Kansas found that Vonage willfully infringed on Sprint's patents as part of its VoIP service, Vonage said. The jury awarded Sprint $69.5 million in damages, which amounts to 5 percent of Vonage's revenue during the infringing period. Vonage plans to initially ask the court to set aside the verdict, but if that fails, the company will appeal the decision. In the meantime, Vonage will also develop workarounds that don't require Sprint's patents, it said. This is the second legal blow to Vonage this year. A court found earlier this year thatÂ Vonage infringed on Verizon patents. That case came with an injunction that would have prevented Vonage from signing up new customers.Â Vonage won a stay of that injunctionÂ and is appealing the original infringement ruling. Although it's clearly bad news for Vonage to have two patent infringement rulings against it this year, the appeals could change everything, said Seth Ostrow, a partner specializing in patents in Dreier LLP. "Often there are mistakes made during various stages of a case that form the basis for a successful appeal, and that, coupled with the statistics, gives reason to think that Vonage has a significant chance of getting this changed," he said. Statistics show that patent cases often get changed on appeal, he said. In August, Vonage said it had nearly completed rolling out workarounds for two of the three patents claimed by Verizon. Still, the Verizon case alone appears to have slowed growth for the company, the largest independent VoIP provider. In its second quarter this year, Vonage added 57,000 customer lines, compared with 256,000 in the same quarter in the previous year. Vonage has said that Verizon pursued the lawsuit in an effort to eliminate a competitor. Vonage stock opened the day at $1.99 and closed at $1.20, a 33 percent drop. This story was updated on September 25, 2007
526690
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.
623587
(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."
47673
(InfoWorld) - Vonage lost less money in the fourth quarter of 2006 than a year earlier, but it didn't attract as many new subscribers to its VoIP service despite heavy marketing. The company, a pioneer in selling phone service that uses packet data networks instead of traditional circuits, now faces competition from cable operators and the established telecommunications carriers. The big players recognize the potential cost benefits of the technology as well as its flexibility, including the ability to give subscribers a browser-based portal for using voice mail and changing service preferences. But those big players are also bundling VoIP with other services, such as broadband Internet access and TV. Vonage ended the fourth quarter with a net gain of 166,267 subscriber lines, bringing its customer base to more than 2.2 million. But that was less than the 204,591 subscribers it gained the previous quarter as well as its gain in the fourth quarter of 2005, when it added 207,252 subscribers. Revenue soared to $181 million, up 91 percent from a year earlier, and the company's net loss narrowed. Vonage lost $65 million, or $0.42 per share, compared with a loss of $72 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. The company's margins also improved, according to a statement Thursday. But Vonage has built its business on being an early mover and drawing a big base of customers that can later drive profits. The company's marketing costs still amounted to 53 percent of revenue in the fourth quarter, although this was down from 71 percent a year earlier. Vonage still expects to reach its goal of making an operating profit, adjusted for certain factors, as early as the first quarter of 2008, the statement said. The company's stock (VG) dropped sharply after its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange last May at $17. Among other things, investors worried about the company's losses and growing competition. On Thursday afternoon, the share price was down $0.42 at $5.42. Â
754133
Â A VOIP (voice over IP) service offered by Vonage Holdings Inc. is not subject to the public utility regulations of individual U.S. states, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared Tuesday.
276191
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;
304555
AT&T filed a lawsuit against VoIP provider Vonage Holdings, seeking damages for alleged patent infringement.
80993
An appeals court denied Vonageâs challenge of an F.C.C. rule requiring providers to pay into the Universal Service Fund.
136626
A US federal court has ruled that voice calls over the internet (VoIP) cannot be regulated rules applied to conventional phone services.
120413
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.
379391
An appeals court on Wednesday upheld  a verdict that Vonage Holdings Corp  infringed two  patents held by Verizon Communications Inc .
337962
Vonage downplays an appeals court decision affirming an earlier verdict of patent infringement on two patents owned by Verizon.