|
Vonage Off The Hook - For Now |
|
|
|
Written by Adam Gosling
|
|
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 |
In its fight for survival in
the courts against accusations of intellectual property infringement,
the darling of the Voice over IP industry has managed to secure the
right to operate as normal until an appeal can be heard.
In
early March the company lost a court case in which US phone company,
Verizon, accused it of infringing a handful of patents. In the case the
jury found that Vonage was guilty of infringing three of the eight
patents tested and awarded Verizon US$58 million in damages.
Vonage
has appealed the decision, but then on Friday, the judge in the first
case granted Verizon an injunction at its request. At Verizon's request
the court ordered, in fact, that Vonage be stopped from singing up new
customers.
Vonage went to the appeal court and was granted a relief from the injunction until the Appellate
Court can ajudicate the case.
Vonage says it views the Court of Appeals'
granting of a temporary stay against the injunction is the "first step toward resolving this matter in
Vonage's favor".
"Vonage will continue
to provide digital telephone service to existing customers indefinitely
by paying into escrow a quarterly royalty of 5.5% throughout the
appeals process. Separately, the District Court required Vonage to post
a bond of $66 million to secure Verizon's damages judgment.
"Vonage
also continues to believe that this case is an attempt to do in the
court room what Verizon could not succeed in doing in the marketplace
-- which is to put Vonage out of business," said the company in a statement.
Related news items Newer news items
Older news items
|
|
|
|
