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Vonage Wins Permanent Stay in Verizon Case
kamikaze-Tech writes "The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC today issued Vonage a permanent stay of a previous court's injunction that would have barred it from signing up new customers. Vonage sought the stay following an April 6th decision by the US District Court in Alexandria, VA enjoining the company from using certain VoIP technology to add new customers."
This lets them sign up new customers, but they still could be screwed as far as the patent thing.
Very true, but it gives them time to try and get around the patents in question. So while I suspect the folks at Vonage corporate are happy, the tech staff is probably not popping champagne corks just yet.
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Unfortunately for Vonage, under the current patent system, Verizon almost certainly has them under their thumb. Within the current rules, I'm betting that Vonage can't win, and somehow will become Verizon's bitch whore just to stay in business. Patent reform is the solution, but it's not going to happen in time for Vonage.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I'm not too familiar with what exactly is going on here and the reach of the issues but how about Vonage Canada? Did Verizon register the patent up here as well? Does it even matter (considering traffic still goes through American based technology/infrastructure)?..
[alk]
So how do you get a actual phone number tied to your VoIP and how can you dial out to an arbitrary phone number? If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't get Vonage (or Verizon) either!
I don't get the whole "911" thing. I've had to call 911 on my Vonage phone and it worked fine. As I'm sure everyone here knows, when you sign up you have to "activate" 911 service (i.e. fill out a form with your address and wait for them to verify it) - it's no big deal.
Through any number of wholesale VoIP providers. This might help : http://www.voipproviderslist.com/
I've personally used Unlimitel (In Canada) for over a year and have been extremely happy with the service. $2.50/month for a DID and $0.01/minute for calls on their network, which is where I place most of my calls. It was far, far cheaper with me (With 4 DIDs) using their service than even basic service from other providers.
You're best off if you're running your own PBX, such as Asterisk, since you can provide your own voice mail services etc.
Here: http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/006846.html
Verizon is looking more and more screwed every day....I too hope Vonage triumphs. After all, the patents in question have already been clearly shown to be patents of existing art that was in the public domain. Lets go one further. If Vonage wins I say they should file an anti-trust suit against Verizon. Verizon is only going after Vonage because Verizon has lost 1/3 of their local loop business. Curiously they didn't go after the cable companies, or the other VoIP carriers. That makes it clear that they're trying to send a message. The worst part is, Verizon isn't really regulated anymore. They could do their own VoIP and they have, but the pricing is way out of line with what Vonage among others charges.
This doesn't SAVE Vonage - it just allows them to continue to exist until Verizon can either buy them on the cheap or else get lots of money from them. In order for your argument to make sense, then Verizon would have to believe that another larger player in the VOIP market was going to emerge that they should wait and try to extort for a larger payday in the future.
It's not about the money. Phone companies in general aren't about making money; They have more money than God. What do they need an extra 60 mil for?
The telcos are all about power; Consolidating theirs. If there are external voice players out there, they want them eliminated. A rival and real competition would threaten their hold on their market, and that's not something they'll stand for. VoIP has the potential to be the most disrupting technology since the internet itself; The telcoms are terrified of it. If they can supress it long enough to establish a strangle hold on it, they win.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I'd go with the simple "that patent is invalid" argument, and if that doesn't work a "they're a monopoly and should be made to license that patent for a court-determined cost" argument.
as much as I hate to say it, monopolies arent illegal. monopolistic practices are. The government has no right and would set a far worse precedent enforing licensing by a court determined cost. That would be the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen. Next thing you know based on that precedent judges through the land will be licensing patents for people against their will without their knowledge for whatever price they determine. A patent most fundamentally grants you the right to determine the fate usage and licensing of your patent. You have every right to refuse to license it to people whether or not you plan on doing any with it.
to be honest im surprised big oil hasnt teamed up with the auto industry to patent everything under the sun involving electric cars and then refuse to license it to anyone so that they can continue to avoid the electric car thing (watch 'who killed the electric car')
I really hate patent trolls, and I really side on vonage with this whole thing... but irregardless you cant just say fuck it they have all the control make them license everything.... and sadly the folks it will end up hurting the most is the FOSS community.. now commercial groups will have the means to forcibly pay for license to profit off Open source development.
the one and only problem here is the flock of moronic idiots who are in control of the USPTO... which reminds me, I wonder if they are hiring, it would probably be fun to do nothing and grant patents simply because i felt like it.
"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny" ~Frank Zappa
EdelFactor
I OWN a CLEC in MA and Verizon does NOT change the rules on us. The rules are pretty straight forward, read 'The Act' and subsequent FCC TROs. The FCC DOES change the rules on occasion, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. The biggest problem is that the 2 largest voices against the RBOCS were AT&T & MCI. Those voices have been silenced.
The single most troubling word in 'The Act' is 'impaired'. The RBOCS must provide a service to a CLEC at Unbundled Network Element (UNE) pricing if the CLEC would be impaired without it. The definition of impaired has been strongly contested for the past 10 years. Am I impaired when I don't have access to fiber to homes & businesses? I say yes, Verizon says no. The FCC agrees with Verizon.
I'm hoping Congress gets their act together with the 'Telecomunications Act of 2006', Maybe we'll see it in 2008, maybe it will be better written. It is more than just network nuetrality but that a big part
Now I hope and pray that I will But today I am still, just a bill