May 3rd, 2007
Vonage won't get new trial, but will be able to use new SCOTUS ruling in appeal
A U.S. appeals court has just denied Vonage's request for a retrial in the patent infringement case brought against it by Verizon.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a ruling dated Wednesday, turned down a motion by Vonage to have an infringement verdict by a lower court vacated because of a landmark patent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
Yet as I see it, the major news out of this development is that the appeals court said Vonage can cite the new Supreme Court ruling as part of its pending appeal of the case.
In an argument filed immediately after the Supreme Court announced its ruling- widely seen as making it less difficult to invalidate patents that are obvious inventions- Vonage had argued that the March 8 infringement verdict in favor of Verizon should be reconsidered and a new trial be granted.
Maybe this is better news for Vonage- fast-tracking the appeals process rather than go through the whole process again.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
