Judge Bars Vonage from Using Verizon Patents
Ruling Comes on Heels of Jury Ordering VoIP Provider to Pay Telco $58M
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 3/23/2007 1:42:00 PM
A federal judge Friday issued a permanent injunction barring Vonage Holdings from using certain voice-over-Internet-protocol patents held by Verizon Communications, but Vonage requested a stay of the injunction and plans to appeal the decision.
Earlier this month, a jury in the case said Vonage must pay Verizon $58 million in damages plus a percentage of future revenues for infringing on three Verizon patents.
In a statement Friday, Vonage said it is “confident its customers will see no change in their phone service.”
Verizon -- which filed the patent-infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in June 2006 -- had been seeking $197 million in damages.
Judge Claude Hilton scheduled a hearing for April 6 on whether to grant Vonage’s request for a stay of the injunction for 120 days. If the court denies the stay, Vonage said, it will appeal the decision to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals.
Vonage CEO Mike Snyder, in a prepared statement, said: "Our fight is far from over. We remain confident that Vonage has not infringed on any of Verizon's patents -- a position we will continue vigorously contending in federal appeals court -- and that Vonage will ultimately prevail in this case."
The company said it drafted its notice of appeal of the March 8 jury verdict and will file that notice at the appropriate juncture.
Vonage, based in Holmdel, N.J., has 2.2 million Internet-phone customers.
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