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Vonage Fights For Its Life
Also, the $3.99 mystery Vonage deal...
Vonage spent today in court fighting for its life in its appeal of a March ruling that stated the company violated three patents owned by Verizon. The March judgement stated Vonage would be forced to pay $58 million, as well as a 5.5% royalty for each customer going forward. Vonage apparently has some concern that neither the judge nor jury at the trial had any idea what was being talking about:
"[Vonage lawyer] Roger Warin argued that the matter of whether Vonage had infringed Verizon's patents with its voice-over-Internet-protocol telephone service was so technical that neither the judge nor the jury could have understood what they were being asked to decide over."
Meanwhile, bloggers since Friday have been pointing to a Vonage $3.99 VoIP plan they're offering defectors as a sign of desperation, though it looks like its actually a longstanding plan Vonage has been trotting out for 3-4 years (though it's not clear what the magic password is to get the plan when talking to Vonage support).

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qworster
join:2001-11-25
Bryn Mawr, PA

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qworster

Member

Vonage has but one hope...

If Verizon's patents were invalidated as being too broad (and based upon the opinion of several VOIP experts, not only are they too broad, but they also encompass prior art), then Vonage will survive. If not, don't be surprised if Verizon buys their carcass at fire sale prices.

I don't care how good FIOS is, it doesn't change one simple fact:
VERIZON IS EVIL!!