Jury: Vonage Infringed on Verizon's Patents
VoIP Provider to Pay $58M to Telco
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 3/8/2007 11:08:00 AM
A federal jury Thursday ordered Vonage Holdings to pay $58 million to Verizon Communications after finding that the Internet-phone provider infringed on Verizon's patents.
The award is less than one-third of the $197 million in damages requested by Verizon, which filed the suit in June 2006. It remained unclear, though, whether Vonage will be barred from using Verizon's patents.
Verizon attorneys requested a permanent injunction barring Vonage from further use of the patented technology after the verdict, AP reported. Judge Claude Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia set an injunction hearing for Friday, March 23.
The jury found that Vonage infringed on three of five of Verizon's patents in dispute, including those covering the ability of the voice-over-Internet-protocol system to interact with the public phone network and advanced features such as call forwarding.
The $58 million award was for damages for past infringement. The jury also ordered Vonage to pay Verizon a 5.5% future royalty rate for the patents in question.
After the verdict was issued, Vonage issued a statement saying that it was "delighted that the jury rejected Verizon's meritless claim that we infringed their two billing patents."
Vonage's statement continued: "Of the seven patents Verizon originally sued on, they prevailed on only three, and we expect that verdict to be reversed on appeal. The jury's damage award represents a 70% reduction from Verizon's $197 million claim. The jury also unanimously rejected Verizon's claim that Vonage willfully infringed its patents."
The VoIP provider also reiterated, "Vonage's customers should see no change to any aspect of their phone service," which it also said in a statement last week.
The jury did not find that Vonage's infringement was willful, which means that the court cannot impose treble damages.
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