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Vonage http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070510-vonage-weve-got-a-workaround-for-verizon-patents.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070510-vonage-weve-got-a-workaround-for-verizon-patents.html
Vonage reported its quarterly earnings earlier today and iVonage CEO Jeffrey Citron disclosed that the company would be ready "shortly" to deploy a workaround for two of the patents it was found to have infringed.
"We believe we have workable designs for the two name translation patents and intend to begin deploying the solution to our customers shortly," said Citron. "In addition, we are continuing our development of the workaround for the wireless patent."
The wireless patent referred to by Citron is number 6,359,880, for a "public wireless/cordless Internet gateway." It describes a number of ways for phone calls to be made wirelessly, including over the Internet. The other two, 6,104,711 and 6,282,574, cover translating calls between IP address and phone numbers. When we examined all three of the patents last month, we concluded that if nothing else, they illustrated the dire mess that the US patent system has become and provide another indicator of the need for patent reform.
Citron didn't provide any details about how the workarounds would function, simply saying during a conference call with reporters and analysts that "we believe they will work." It may prove to be tough: all three of the patents cover a concept rather than a specific application, making a workaround more difficult to employ.
After Vonage was found to have infringed on the Verizon patents, a judge barred the company from signing up new customers while ruling that it could continue operations. Vonage has appealed the verdict, and the appeals court has lifted the injunction against expanding its customer base for the duration of the appeal. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on KSR v. Teleflex, which held that a lower court did not sufficiently consider the question of a patent's obviousness, Vonage asked for a new trial. That request was denied, but the court did rule that the Voip company could raise the issue as part of its appeal.
This isn't the first report of a patent workaround. Ars reported last month that an agreement Vonage signed with Voip, Inc. would provide a workaround for the translation patents. Vonage later denied that a workaround was in place.
If Vonage does indeed have a workaround ready, it should go a long way towards dispelling the dark cloud hovering over the company's New Jersey headquarters. Its appeal may succeed, and Verizon's patents may be overturned, but in the case that neither of those two things happens, Vonage should be able to continue operations with the workaround in place... assuming they can stop losing money. Things are looking slightly better on that front: the Voip provider's adjusted loss narrowed to $58 million during the first quarter, a 20 percent improvement from the previous year's $73 million figure.
Read The Full Thread: Vonage: we''ve got a workaround for Verizon patents
• Here is Cllaim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 6,104,711
1. A server, comprising:
an
cmajewsk posted "http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070510-vonage-weve-got-a-workaround-for-verizon-patents.html" on 05/10/2007 |
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