September 26th, 2007
Just in: Vonage gets a break in Verizon patent suit: monetary award vacated
On the heels of the Sprint vs. Vonage patent infringement ruling that is most certainly not OK for Vonage and its users, Vonage did receive a bit of good news today in its Patent dispute with Verizon.
In a nutshell: Vonage won’t have to pay Verizon $58 million in damages and 5.5% royalties. At least not for quite a while.
To that end, Vonage has just issued the following statement:
Vonage announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today partially remanded a March 8th jury verdict in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. that the company infringed on three Verizon patents. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded the infringement verdict on the 880 patent and affirmed the verdict on the 574 and 711 patents. Further, the Court of Appeals vacated the entire award of $58 million in damages and the 5.5% royalty. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the U.S. District Court and directed that the court retry those aspects of the original case.
In light of the workaround technology that Vonage has developed and deployed, today’s decision is not expected to have an adverse impact on Vonage’s business and customers will continue to enjoy the same great service they have come to expect from Vonage. Workarounds to the 711 patent and the 574 patent have been deployed for awhile.
“We thank the appellate court for its thoughtful consideration of the merits of our case,” said Vonage’s Chief Legal Officer, Sharon O’Leary. “We are pleased with the decision to vacate the 880 patent and the damages. However, Vonage remains confident that it has not infringed on the 880 patent — a position we will continue to vigorously assert and look forward to presenting at trial.”
O’Leary continued, “In the meantime, it’s business as usual. We have had our workarounds for the 711 and 574 patents in place for some time and will remain focused on providing a great customer experience.”
Well, one disputed patent down, and two to go. Important to remember here that the main thing is that this ruling buys Vonage some time. When 711 and 574 are presented at trial, a workaround in place could conceivably prove Vonage’s good faith. And that could mean lessening any awardss- even if Vonage is found infringing on those two 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.
