Vonage struck again as court partly upholds Verizon verdict

When it rains, it pours. At least we're pretty sure Vonage thinks so, as for the second time in as many days, the firm has been hit with terrible news on the legal front. Just a day after being ordered to pay Sprint a whopping $69.5 million for patent infringement, the VoIP provider is now hearing that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit "partially affirmed" the Verizon verdict from March. For those who have forgotten, that case proclaimed that Vonage owed Verizon $58 million in addition to royalties on future revenue, but the appeals court did "direct the trial court to reconsider the verdict on one of the three patents and it vacated the damages and royalty awards." Notably, the "injunction has been stayed pending resolution of Vonage's appeal," but it will go into effect within a month if the outfit can't secure an emergency stay from the US Supreme Court.

[ToxicDose @ Sep 26th 2007 5:19PM]

In the imortal words of Nelson Muntz . . . "Haa Haa".

[Rob @ Sep 26th 2007 5:32PM]

Vonage is done with. I can't see a company this size, with such low profit margins, high marketing cost, and with low investor interest surviving. Regardless of what your experience with the company and/or their service is, this is a terrible blow to Vonage. Also, considering how the company is open to further litigation against it, I can't see some major company buying them either.

So, Vonage's days may be counted. And, that's too bad because they brought in a lot of competition to companies like Verizon and the cable institutions. When there's no competition, then you have monopolies, and we all know how those work in favor of the consumer.

[holocron @ Sep 26th 2007 5:39PM]

Actually, this makes them ripe for "acquisition" by one of the companies that holds a judgment against Vonage.

[Rob @ Sep 26th 2007 6:06PM]

Well, you're right about that too. And Verizon or Sprint buying them, at a loss to Vonage, would be a disaster because then there won't be any major competitor offering customers a cheaper way to have a land line. Sure there are the likes of Skype. But, those require an entire separate set of equipment and services.

[Howard @ Sep 26th 2007 5:33PM]

as a current Vonage customer, I am not too happy about these news. This may only mean one thing, BANKRUPTCY!!

[A-A Williams @ Sep 26th 2007 10:54PM]

Ditto my friend... Badda Bing Badda Boom, I smell doom (as in Vonage your doomed). I was looking for a reason to cancel my service and this did it for me. Gotta get out will the gettin good.

[Tim @ Sep 26th 2007 7:13PM]

that's what they get for those fucking grating "whoo whoo" commercials.

[Grizz @ Sep 26th 2007 7:19PM]

F--- telecommunication giants all they do is screw everyone else large or small.

[xpherion @ Sep 26th 2007 8:10PM]

this is bad for cheap voip phone service.

[jon.tanner @ Sep 26th 2007 9:41PM]

I actually liked those "Woo-hoo" commercials. Little anecdote: When they first started airing, our clueless big boss was to give a "rally the troops" speech, and some in the audience started singing the "Woo-hoo" tune as he approached the mic. He thought they were cheering him on; the rest of us knew they were refering to the "stupid things" tagline. I wonder if he ever figured it out once the ads became more common...

Ads aside, I'm frustrated that the company who actually DID something with the technology that really helped consumers is the one being penalized. It seems to me that Verizon is acting like a patent troll and trying to stifle innovation (and therefore competition) by extending their patents to cover technologies EXPRESSLY so they CANNOT be made available to consumers. How frustrating.

[Tim @ Sep 27th 2007 2:44AM]

sorry, but i've found it extremely grating ever sine i first heard it -- and they never changed it after years of those commercials.

also, do some research - you might be a little surprised to find out how vonage treats their customers...

http://www.sl-prokeys.com/vonage/vonage.htm

[lettcco @ Sep 27th 2007 4:27AM]

coming from sunrocket meltdown experience, I decided not to go back to vonage and I am glad that I didn't. I am using gizmoproject which is like pre-paid but my $10 have last me 2 months so far and I used up $5 so far.

[Jason @ Sep 27th 2007 10:46AM]

I would say your best alternative for a home phone based service/equipment voip would be Packet8. They seem to have been around much longer then anyone else and offer similar equipment and service plans that vonage does.

[jtrossen @ Sep 27th 2007 3:20PM]

Help. I have Vonage. I love it. I can use it in Baja. I also have a fax number. What, in your opinions, will be my alternative(s)? I have a home-based biz. Skype is not a possibility. I read of two alternatives above: phonefuture.mylightyear.net and Padet8. Are they possibilities? (Going to their sites next.) Thanks.

[Gregg @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:15PM]

We used Vonage for quite a while but a few months back, after we began hearing more and more about the law suits we switched to a company called Lightyear Alliance, http://www.phonefuture.mylightyear.net Have had great service from them and very pleased with the company. Price is the same as well as options provided, in some cases actually better. This is an unfortunate situation for Vonage, but there are still providers out there who will take us and don't seem to be having any legal problems. In the long run I think this is the way to go and down the road will become a big market, maybe even driving the Bell companies out entirely.

[Jim @ Oct 4th 2007 10:23PM]

I lived through the wild west days of trying to get lower cost telecom services with competitive local exchange companies and was burned badly. Now I feel like this is a déjà vu – as I have Vonage service . I am tired of going with service providers who are either not well funded or in this case not well endowed with technology that is actually their own. The alternatives seem to be limited as many other providers are small or going under (just look at Sunrocket). I hear there are some good providers that are stable because they are well funded, e.g. Net2Phone, but I am very gun shy. What a mess!