Quick Hits
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 5/6/2007 8:00:00 PM
Court Denies Vonage a Retrial
Washington — A federal appeals court denied a request by Vonage Holdings for a retrial in the patent-infringement case the Internet phone company lost, in a suit brought by Verizon Communications.
Vonage last Tuesday asked for a new trial by citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could make it harder for patent holders to defend “obvious” patents. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., denied the motion.
Vonage had hoped to get a new trial after the Supreme Court’s April 30 ruling in KSR v. Teleflex, in which the court found that “granting patent protection to advances that would occur in the ordinary course without real innovation retards progress.”
The appeals court has set a June 25 hearing in the case. Last week, the court granted Vonage a temporary stay of an injunction, ordered by a lower court, that would have prevented Vonage from signing up new customers while it appealed the decision.
Iowa Judge Overrides Cities on Fees
Des Moines, Iowa — A Scott County, Iowa, judge has ruled that the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf are illegally handling the franchise fees they collect.
Those cities have been placing the fees they collect from cable customers, via their cable operator, in city general funds. The judge ruled that if there is money collected beyond the cost to inspect, license, supervise or otherwise regulate cable, then the overage represents a tax levy, a category forbidden by state law.
The ruling by Judge Patrick Madden follows the rationale of the state Supreme Court, which in May 2006 reversed a partial judgment by a trial court and sent a consumer challenge over excessive gas and electric utility franchise fees back to the lower court for trial. The tax interpretations in that trial also apply to the cable assessments, according to Madden.
Citizens in seven Iowa towns sued last September over the amount of franchise fees. The other five suits — against Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Sioux City and Waterloo — are still pending. The legal challenge addresses franchise fees collected by the targeted towns since 2000.
Mass. Town Green-Lights FiOS
Dunstable, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen in Dunstable, Mass., voted last week to grant Verizon Communications a video franchise for its FiOS TV service.
The telco will compete with incumbent cable operator Comcast for approximately 1,000 households.
FiOS TV has now won approval in 47 Massachusetts communities.
