Vonage Appeals Verizon Patent Injunction; Hearing Set for April 24

6:35 am on April 12, 2007 | Category: Business, Law, Telecom Services, Telephone, VoIP

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A U.S. federal court has set a hearing date for Vonage’s appeal of a pending injunction that would prevent new customers from signing up for its popular Voice over IP telephone service.

The appeal hearing is scheduled for April 24, when Vonage will argue that its infringement on Verizon’s VoIP patents was too minor to warrant such a radical “bullet to the head” injunction.

A jury determined last month that Vonage had infringed on patents owned by Verizon, and awarded the telecom incumbent $58 million in damages, as well as a 5.5% royalty on future Vonage revenue. Verizon was not satisfied with this, however, and sought a court injunction to shut down the VoIP startup.

U.S. district judge, Claude Hilton, stopped short of ordering a total shutdown, but issued an injunction preventing Vonage from acquiring new customers. That ruling has been temporarily stayed by a higher court, allowing the VoIP provider some time to appeal.

At this point, Vonage, which has a high customer churn rate and depends on new subscriber acquisitions to keep revenues up, is fighting for survival. The April 24 hearing could be its last chance to reverse this fatal turn of events and continue offering its low-cost broadband telephone offering.

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    1. I want to order Verizon DSL and VoIP have you or a friend ever ordered through DSL Dance or other sites like it? Their deals look better than the provider.

      Comment by Sparky — April 12, 2007 #

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