Verizon Patent Lawsuit

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 23, 2007 Posts: 1

VG Vonage: U.S. Judge issues injunction barring Vonage from using Verizon internet phone call technologies - Reuters

Are we all screwed when Vonage is forced to shut down in a few days?

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Oct 27, 2005 Posts: 34

ouch wrote:

VG Vonage: U.S. Judge issues injunction barring Vonage from using Verizon internet phone call technologies - Reuters

Are we all screwed when Vonage is forced to shut down in a few days?

Unlikely. Vonage may have to pay, leave it up to the lawyers.

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

spdickey wrote:

Vonage may have to pay

That was the point of the injunction. Verizon said "we don't want money, we want Vonage to stop using our technology, period."

The judge said simply providing monetary damages "does not prevent continued erosion of the client base of the plaintiff."

However, "U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton approved Verizon's request for a block today in Alexandria, Virginia. Hilton said he won't sign the order before a hearing to be held in two weeks on Vonage's request for a stay."

And Vonage says they're working on technical workarounds to avoid the patents that this order requires them to stop using.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 23, 2007 Posts: 1

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Vonage Holdings Corp., the Internet phone-service provider, was ordered by a judge to stop allowing customers to make calls to standard phone lines.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria, Virginia, approved Verizon Communications Inc.'s request for the order today. A jury found March 8 that Vonage infringed three patents and ordered it to pay Verizon $58 million.

The award ``does not prevent continued erosion of the client base and the customer base'' of Verizon, the judge said. ``The only hardship to the defendant is loss of revenue.''

Verizon sued money-losing Vonage in June, claiming it lured away more than 1 million Verizon customers by copying voicemail and other services, as well as a method for allowing Internet calls to reach traditional phone lines. Vonage's sales more than doubled to $607.4 million last year, compared with New York- based Verizon's $88.1 billion.

Vonage asked Hilton to halt the imposition of the order while it appeals. Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz said in a March 12 e-mail that the Holmdel, New Jersey-based company was ``developing technical workarounds to enable us to avoid infringing'' the three Verizon patents.

Shares of Vonage fell 25 cents, or 6.2 percent, to $3.80 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today before trading was halted. Verizon rose 45 cents to $38.46.

The jury found that three of five disputed patents were infringed and all five are valid. Vonage had accused Verizon of using the lawsuit to stifle competition.

The case is Verizon Services Corp. v. Vonage

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 23, 2007 Posts: 1

In my opion and interpretation:

Despite Verizon's wishes, I bet Vonage will continue working fine, by either:

-winning one of the appeals-one in 2 weeks, another (fed) after that
-deploying a new technology not protested by verizon
-paying Verizon a large penalty

This fight isnt going to be finnished as fast as the media claims.

The judges dont want the 'little guy' nor the economy to be punished by Vonage's mistake with a nationwide phone outage of 2 million phones...

Nobody, not even Verizon, wants to destroy a revenue stream.
Verizon would rather take the revenue stream and the entire company (Vonage) - then shut it down. They couldnt quickly sign up this many people wishing to switch over if they wanted to. [if memory serves me, they have to send a union dude to your house to connect two wires, which takes like half a day per person].

Thats probably the worse case scenario. Terrible for Vonage, but not so bad for their customers.(Remember the Blackberry scare).

Go Vonage!

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:

skipperAl -

I suspect you are right. I can't imagine Vonage knuckling under that fast, and I'm sure they are looking into alternatives to connect to the landline network and finding other ways around the Verizon patents, while using their lawyers to hold Verizon off long enough so their technical people can get the new technology implemented fast.

I predict very little sleep and very high stress in the Vonage technical department over the next couple of weeks. Other than that, I strongly suspect few Vonage customers will see much change, except possibly some downtime during the changeover. Maybe.

But who knows? Depending on the patents, and how broadly they are interpreted, it is possible that ALL Voip could be dead in the next couple of years. Then voicemail, then wireless handsets (cell phones). Except for Verizon-owned stuff, that is.

Unlikely, but possible. I suspect you'll find a lot of angry letters to Congresscritters before it gets that far, though, and maybe some much-needed IP reform.

Posts: 282 · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 6:18 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

skipperAl -

I suspect you are right. I can't imagine Vonage knuckling under that fast, and I'm sure they are looking into alternatives to connect to the landline network and finding other ways around the Verizon patents, while using their lawyers to hold Verizon off long enough so their technical people can get the new technology implemented fast.

Well, for their own sake, I hope they manage this feat a little faster than ACR... Very Happy

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 08, 2006 Posts: 4

Dish Network LOST to TiVo and an injunction was sought. That was probably a year ago.

Nobody has lost their Dish DVR yet. These things take time.

Posts: 292 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Oct 08, 2004 Posts: 292

PRMan wrote:

Dish Network LOST to TiVo and an injunction was sought. That was probably a year ago.

Nobody has lost their Dish DVR yet. These things take time.

Same thing with Blackberry two years ago, and mine still works.

Posts: 113 · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:47 pm Post subject: yes but.............

This is messed up. I ported my long time phone number over to Vonage and I am very concerned about losing the phone number if they do shut down.

All of the cards that I have handed out to people of the years have my phone number on them. I sure would like to hear from Vonage on this issue. There are no guarantees here.