September 5th, 2007
Sprint attorney at infringement trial: without our inventions, Vonage ..."could not exist"
Testimony is under way in the patent infringement trial pitting Vonage against SprintNextel.
Attorneys for SprintNextel are demanding $103 million from Vonage for what they believe is infringing use of SprintNextel technology to build its network.
The particular alleged infringements relate to the way Vonage connects callers to the traditional telephone network.
SprintNextel arrived at the $103 million claim by applying what it believes is a 7 percent royalty threshold for its inventions based on an average annual Vonage revenue of $1.3 billion since the alleged infringement started.
“Vonage has made over a billion dollars using Sprint’s technology,” B. Trent Webb of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP told the jury Tuesday. Without Sprint’s inventions, “Vonage as a company could not exist,” Webb said.
Sprint, based in Reston, Va., is entitled to a 7 percent royalty for its inventions, Webb said. Based on Vonage’s historical revenue of $1.3 billion and interest, damages total $103 million, he said.
Vonage denies these infringement charges, and is disputing the validity of these patents.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
