RSSVonage settles last of patent infringement cases
by Nate Mook
The last day of 2007 brought some relief to struggling Internet telephone provider Vonage, as the company settled the last patent infringement lawsuit against it, this time with telecommunications giant Nortel.
AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel had all sued Vonage earlier in the year. Verizon was the first to sue the company, and for a period left Vonage unable to accept new subscribers. In the end, Vonage was forced to pay $80 million each to Verizon and Sprint, while the cost of its AT&T settlement was not yet disclosed.
Digital Packet Licensing had accused Nortel of violating three of its patents. Nortel responded with a claim that Vonage was infringing on nine of its patents, including those related to emergency and information calls, as well as click-to-call functionality.
Like many patent fights, Nortel sued the VoIP provider more out of an attempt to force Vonage's hand at the bargaining table, calling it a "defense" move. And Vonage was likely eager to settle with Nortel so it could have a clean slate going into 2008.
The voice over IP provider has agreed to drop all previous claims against Nortel, and the two companies will cross-license three patents. Unlike with its other plaintiffs, no money will be exchanged as part of the Nortel settlement.
6 Comments
The VoP patent infringement cases are not over yet! Specially for Sprint and Vonage! We'll see them back in court soon!
Reader may visit www.masoudkamali.com and download some of the slides that I had prepared for the Sprint/Vonage court on this subject, covering topics such as prior art, best mode, ...
In short: The technology that enables a voice call over a hybrid TDM-packet network (POTS to IP phone) belongs neither to Vonage nor to Sprint!
How do I know: I had the pleasure to demo the first hybrid call in 1996 (to Sprint CTO and others)!
More news on this coming soon!
Masoud M. Kamali
MMK Technologies
www.masoudkamali.com
Score: 0
Vonage is piece of crap, I used it for about a year and nothing headaches. I hope Vonage is it way out!
Score: 0
I, too, am amazed that Vonage survived all this. I used them for a couple of years and really liked the service.
Score: 0
I'm surprised they are still in business after all the patent infringement lawsuits. Good job Vonage!
Score: 0
Completely agree. I was a customer for about a year now and have had zero problems even though they're getting sued from all sides. Way to go!
Score: 0
That is, quite honestly, music to my ears. I have really really wanted to get Vonage for the longest time, but couldn't fathom getting it with all these multi-million $$ lawsuits going around. I'll give it another bit of time and then reconsider signing up (just to see if the financial waterfall happens or not)
Score: 0