April 23rd, 2007
Vonage vs. Verizon: how will the Appeals Court rule tomorrow?
Tomorrow, Vonage will ask an appeals court to extend a freeze of a lower court order that bars it from signing up new customers during the length of an appeals process of a ruling against Vonage in its patent infringement suit against Verizon.
Last Tuesday, Vonage put out a statement calling into question its very survivability if the extension is not granted.
Norm Bogen, an analyst at research firm In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz., tells Bloomberg News, "Verizon smacked (Vonage) in the head with this lawsuit, and I think it will be difficult to beat it. "If you don't have a workaround, then you're at the mercy of the court. If it's upheld, then they're toast.''
I peronally think the dire predictions Vonage presented as part of the legal argument to extend the freeze is part of an effort to impress the appeals court with the necessity of not contributing to Vonage's downfall- only to find out a year later that Vonage in fact, has a case that the three disputed Patents are overly general.
I believe they are, by the way.
But now I want to know what you think will happen tomorrow.
Comments, please…
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
