RSSVonage Asks: 'Can You Patent an Orange?'
By Ed Oswald | Published April 25, 2007, 3:37 PM
Fresh off its victory in gaining a permanent injunction, Vonage is now taking its battle to the people, launching Free to Compete, a Web site aimed at putting pressure on Verizon to lay off the VoIP company.
Vonage says that Verizon is attempting to stamp out competition by suing them out of the marketplace. In addition to the website, it will also place full-page ads in papers around the country as well as through radio and television.
The Web site gives customers and interested parties information on the court cases, as well as links to public court documents, a petition to protect the consumer's right to choose phone providers, and an e-mail link to complain to Verizon.
Some of the letters would even be posted to the site, along with videos sent in by the company's customers.
"We think this issue warrants national attention because when competition is stifled, consumers literally pay the price," chairman and interim CEO Jeffrey Citron said. "Vonage is the target today, but what other innovative companies might be next?"
The company says it has saved consumers millions of dollars and has caused long distance rates to fall. Verizon has only about 15,000 VoIP providers, Vonage 2.4 million.
Some of the customer e-mails are quite direct: "Just to let you know that we love your service and will support you fully in your battle with Verizon. It also helps that we hate Verizon," a letter from Vonage customer Leonard Goldman.
The company analogizes the battle in an interesting way. "If you own a patent on an orange, does that mean you own a patent on the orange tree too?" a flash animation asks. "What about the ground where the tree grows, or the truck that takes the orange to the market?"
Verizon was not immediately available for comment on Vonage's latest push to make its case.
Some aren't buying the VoIP providers tactics, questioning if it would really make any difference. "Just imagine, an army of thousands of Vonage customers, circling the court while chanting 'woo-hoo, woo-woo-hoo!'," GigaOm's Paul Kapustka said. "That should do the trick."
What's most ironic and unfair in general is that many (most) of the recent headlines involving IP litigation are the result of flaws in how the USPTO was configured up until 2005. In early 2006, a massive effort was put into play to overhaul staffing, processes, policies, rules and involved a lot of training of a LOT of new hires. Before then, they were woefully understaffed, and as a result, rushed some things through without careful review. Somethings got too much review and were delayed way too long. Time will tell if the changes make a difference by looking at how IP infringement cases pan out from filings that were submitted since Q4-2006. It was long overdue, and I'm optimistic it will make a positive impact in the years ahead.
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|I would love to be in the Shareholder meeting as the board explains "Ummm we might not have a patent on the technology you invested in". It is a question of IP rights you hold a patent you have the right to be compensated for the right to use it.
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|One of my Verizon phone lines had no dialtone yesterday, So i called it, and i got a "This number has been disconected" message, so i called up Verizon, Verified that the line had been disco'd, verified that i had not asked for a disco, Verified that i did not owe them any money, Their excuse...
"There was a computer glitch, and the computer decided to disconnect you, we're sorry, we'll get that fixed, oh and we'll waive the reconnection fee"
Umm, hello, you screwed up, of COURSE you will waive the reconnection fee... Then of course they said "We will try and have that back on for you today, but it might not be till tomorow" Uhh hello, you scrwed up, you damn well better have it back on today (to their credit, the line was back on 2 minutes after i got off the phone with them)
I did ask the guy if he'd see any of Verizon's new "It's Always On" commercials... caus my line sure as hell wasn't on...
I love my Vonage, i only maintain a Verizon line at home because i've got DSL and need local dialtone, Verizon won't allow my local ISP to do naked dsl.
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|Verzion has my state in its pocket. They have actually REMOVED services in the last ten years - residential ISDN, for example. Their DSL is a joke. Service is fairly bad, they invest almost nothing into infrastucture and their rates increase every single year. But as long as they keep greasing palms in the capitol, nothing will ever change.
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|I agree, I am with you Vonage, I hate VERIZON.
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|Vonage should expand the website to include all software patents; be a force to end the software patent nightmare in the US once and for all.
Programmers shouldn't have to be lawyers navigating a patent minefield when developing products and services.
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|Well, theoretically, you shouldn't be able to patent something unless it is "non-obvious to a person skilled in the art", and things that are not obvious should not be easily stumbled over. The problem is that the patent office has no clue as to what is obvious or not...heck, most software developers can't really say for sure how obvious something is until the sit down and try to solve themselves in the problem in the first place.
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|"Just imagine, an army of thousands of Vonage customers, circling the court while chanting 'woo-hoo, woo-woo-hoo!',"
Um... No, let's NOT imagine that. That's just tear gas a-waitin' to happen. :-)
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|I'd like to hear it, though ... specially if a few thousand people did it!
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|Yeah....me, too.
It's better than hearing a bunch of idiots walking around asking at every turn, "Can ya hear me now?"
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|It's better than hearing a bunch of idiots walking around asking at every turn, "Can ya hear me now?"
The guy on the commercial who says that, I'd like to drop kick his head.
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|Be nice otherwise he may hear you.
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|Ed Gooberman, you fail to grasp Tae-Kwon Leep. Approach me so that you may see.
Observe closely class. Boot to the Head [boom].
Taken from
http://beagleweb.com/fun-taekwanleap.html
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