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Verizon Sues Vonage Over Patents

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

June 19, 2006, 10:48 AM

Another lawsuit has been filed in the increasingly litigious VOIP industry. Vonage acknowledged Monday that it had been served with a suit by Verizon and Verizon Laboratories alleging infringement of seven patents related to VOIP technologies. The company said that before the suit, it had not been informed by Verizon that it was infringing upon the technologies, and had hired outside counsel to investigate Verizon's claims.

"As a leading developer of VoIP technology, Vonage respects the valid intellectual property rights of others," Vonage said in a statement. "Vonage believes that its services have been developed with its own proprietary technology and technology licensed from third parties and intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit." Verizon had no further comment as of press time.

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By queensplaza

edited Jul 10, 2006 - 10:17 AM

It's about time Verizon does something about these horrible people with their stupid commercials, terrible customer service, shameful "telephone" service, ripping people off (never refunding money they say they would when the customer inevitably switches back to Verizon), and a retarded business plan (more woo hoo woo hoo hoo commercials... thats it.. no service improvements or anything else tangible).

Verizon has every legal right to take action to protect it's intellectual property and its customers!

Score: 0

By CheshireDragon

posted Jun 19, 2006 - 7:05 PM

Yeah, Vonage is a great service too as long as your ISP has good uptime.
I'd have to agree with Black-Wolf's ? and Grazer on this one.
Why did it take them so long to file suit? Vonage, from what I know of has been around for well over a year(in my area)Tyler,TX..pls correct me if I am wrong.

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Jun 19, 2006 - 2:40 PM

This is one way for big company to drive out small competitions. Sue them and then drag the suit until they bankrupt. Should include these lessons in college business textbook.

Score: 0

By CMSTech

edited Jun 19, 2006 - 3:52 PM

That is a bold statement for not knowing if the patent claims are legit or not.

What if Verizon's claims are legit? Why shouldn't Verizon protect their business? Now if the claims aren't legit, that is another matter

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted Jun 19, 2006 - 11:16 PM

I think you missed the point: xyzcb1 is suggesting that any large company could sue smaller competition into bankruptcy - regardless of the validity of the suit.

Score: 0

By The-One

edited Jun 19, 2006 - 2:01 PM

I hate lawyers...in the end this will hurt all consumers, either by forcing Vonage to raise the rates (to either pay Verizon for some lame-o patent that probably shouldn't have been issued, or just for court fees to fight this crap) or Vonage will go out of business leaving one less competitor in the market - meaning higher rates.

Maybe the Congress should pass a bill here, since they seem to help every other industry, I'm sure Vonage has enough money to take a few Congressmen out on vacation :)

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

posted Jun 19, 2006 - 12:42 PM

Vonage has been out for so long and now they just filed the suit?

LOL, sometimes they are just gay...

Score: 0

By Grazer

posted Jun 19, 2006 - 12:57 PM

Vonage probably started cutting into Verizon's business enough to matter. (i.e. Time to squash competition with a lawsuit.)

Score: 0

By dhjdhj

posted Jun 19, 2006 - 1:30 PM

Or now that Vonage has gone public, they have enough money available for a lawsuit to be financially viable....no point in suing someone who doesn't have any money

Sigh,

Score: 0

By iampedro

posted Feb 21, 2007 - 10:28 PM

What are the Patents that Vonage has violated?

Score: 0

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