Verizon and Nextel say they will stop suing each other
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Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications, two of the country&#39;s biggest cell phone operators, said yesterday that they planned to drop their lawsuits against each other.
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Vonage is set this week to appear in court to face charges that it has infringed upon patents owned by telecommunications giant Verizon.
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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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Cingular Wireless, one of the largest  U.S. mobile phone carriers, on Friday refuted claims in a  lawsuit that it misled and overcharged some customers, and said  it is considering coutersuing.
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BREAKING NEWS - It may be extremely slim comfort for VoIP services provider Vonage in the wake of yesterday's total loss in the patent infringement suit brought against it by Sprint Nextel, but Vonage will take it nonetheless: A federal appeals court upheld today only two of the three patent infringement decisions in last March's case brought on by Verizon, remanding the third to a lower court for retrial.
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Two-year legal dispute over smart phone technology comes to an end.
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(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
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Verizon Wireless is decrying a reported attempt by Nextel to reduce the price tag in its controversial spectrum deal with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
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Broadcom and Verizon Wireless have reached a deal that will allow Verizon to continue to import and sell phones involved in continuing litigation.
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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.
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Verizon Communications Inc. VZ.N  and Qwest Communications International Inc. Q.N asked a  federal appeals court Tuesday to block temporary rules by the  U.S. Federal Communications Commission forcing the companies to  lease phone lines to rivals for at least another six months.
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Verizon Communications Inc. and  Qwest Communications International Inc. asked a federal court  on Tuesday to block temporary rules by the U.S. Federal  Communications Commission forcing the companies to lease phone  lines to rivals for at least another six months.
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Nextel Communications Inc. agreed Monday to a plan by federal regulators aimed at ending interference from Nextel cell phones that disrupts public safety communication systems in hundreds of communities.
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Settlement is latest in a string of patent cases against Internet phone company. Vonage has settled disputes with Sprint, Verizon in recent months.
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(InfoWorld) - A federal jury has found that Vonage infringed three Verizon patents and must pay $58 million in damages plus royalties to Verizon, Vonage confirmed Thursday. Verizon sued Vonage last June, alleging the VoIP provider had violated seven of its patents involving the packet-based calling technology. In reality, the giant carrier sued to try to eliminate "a formidable competitor" to part of its traditional phone business, said Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz. Vonage must pay a 5.5 percent royalty rate on future sales to use the Verizon technology. After the verdict, Verizon asked for a permanent injunction to stop Vonage from using the technology altogether, Vonage confirmed. In a statement, Vonage said it expects the verdict to be reversed on appeal. The award was 70 percent lower than the $197 million that Verizon originally sought, Vonage said. There is no basis for an injunction, and Vonage will seek a stay from the Federal Court of Appeals if it is imposed, the company said. Vonage customers should not see any change to their service, Vonage said. "We are proud of our inventors and pleased the jury stood up for the legal protections they deserve," Verizon said in a statement. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Qualcomm and Broadcom have settled some of their patent claims against each other, avoiding a jury trial scheduled to begin next month, Qualcomm said on Friday. They remainÂ deadlocked over other patents, however, and still face several potential trials this year. The chip makers have been battling in court since 2005, whenÂ Broadcom accusedÂ Qualcomm of infringing 10 of its technology patents.Â Qualcomm respondedÂ with its own infringement suit and the companies have been at loggerheads ever since. They have now agreed to dismiss all claims against each other relating to two of Broadcom's patents and two of Qualcomm's patents, Qualcomm said. The agreement means that one of their infringement lawsuits in San Diego Federal Court will be dropped, and a trial scheduled there for March 5 has been dismissed, Qualcomm said. Other cases in San Diego and in Orange County, California, remain unresolved, and the companies still have at least four other jury trials scheduled this year, Qualcomm said. Broadcom could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter. Separately, Qualcomm said an antitrust suit brought against it and several other technology companies by Golden Bridge Technology had been dismissed on Feb. 16. The suit, which also named Motorola, Nokia, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, and the former Lucent Technologies, accused the companies of conspiring to exclude Golden Bridge's technology from a wireless industry standard. The court determined that there was no evidence that the defendants had acted improperly, according to Qualcomm. Golden Bridge Technology could not immediately be reached.
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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;