March 23rd, 2007
Federal Judge bars Vonage's use of Verizon's patented technology
Traveling today but this is so urgent I had to tell you.
A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against Vonage using technology included in any of three VoIP-related patents owned by Verizon.
Judge Claude Hilton said that an injunction was necessary because simply providing monetary damages "does not prevent continued erosion of the client base of the plaintiff," the Associated Press reported.
On March 8, a federal jury found that Vonage violated several of Verizon's patents and ordered the Internet-phone company to pay $58 million in damages as well sizable royalty fees. At that time, Verizon, said it would seek an injunction to block Vonage from using its patented technology.
At first take, hardly a market-confidence builder for Vonage. As more details and reax emerge, I'll be monitoring this, and offering my take later today and over the weekend.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
