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Vonage Hit With $69.5M Judgement

Posted by kdawson on from the hard-to-get-customers-after-that dept.

andy1307 writes "The Washington Post is reporting that Net telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was ordered in federal court Tuesday to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in damages for infringing on six telecommunications patents owned by competitor Sprint Nextel Corp. In addition to the damages, jurors awarded Sprint Nextel a 5 percent royalty from Vonage on future revenues. It was the second verdict against Vonage this year. A jury in Virginia determined in March that Vonage had violated three Verizon patents in building its Internet phone system. The jury awarded Verizon $58 million in damages plus 5.5 percent royalties on future revenues. Greg Gorbatenko, a telecommunications and media analyst for Jackson Securities, said the decision 'feels like a death knell' for Vonage because future revenue will likely dry up, preventing the company from investing in better technology or improving customer service."

5 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm using one of the many smaller VOIP companies that lets me use asterisk and/or any SIP hardware/software combination I want rather than crap that's locked to a single provider and let's me pay only for the minutes I use without any monthly fee.

    F Vonage.

  2. EXCELLENT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    From personal experience dealing with Vonage they are a horrible company. They deserve every bit of what is coming to them. There demise cannot come quick enough.

  3. Re:A perfect example of patents destroying innovat by ILuvRamen · · Score: -1, Troll

    What are you talking about?! If someone invents something and is patent whoring it so nobody else can use it to compete, that CAUSES innovation not stomps it. Just innovate and invent something better. A bunch of companies trying to steal each others' technology so nothing ever improves is the opposite of innovation. Then you just get a bunch of knock-off crap. If dialup and dsl technologies were perfectly open patents for everyone to use, we'd still be using them because companies would be stuck on "Wow that dialup service is awesome and everyone's getting it! Let's copy it!" With people paying royalties and getting permission to use those inventions, they just say screw it, we can do better and invent cable and fiber and microwave transmission etc.

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
  4. Can't stand Vonage by edwardpickman · · Score: 0, Troll

    As much as I like VOIP Vonage is pretty sleazy to deal with. I kept having service interruptions so I finally cancelled my service. It took 20 minutes of threats of lawsuits before they would even agree to cancel the service. Over all it took 45 minutes of fighting and they were still trying to talk me out of it right up until I hung up on them. There are other and better services so it couldn't happen to a sleazier company as far as I'm concerned.

  5. Kurt Vonaget Is The Shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    FLiRSt POsT MinUS ThE 'L', You VOnAGeT LEgHuMPiNG JUmPInG BeAnS From chINA.

    MOD +5 PLZ.

    It'S my BirtHDAY And My Cat Died In My Arms ToN1GHt. (It CouLD'VE BEEN SOMETHING HE MEOWED.)

    GG.