Vonage Must Pay $120-Million to Settle Verizon Patent Lawsuit

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Vonage Must Pay $120-Million to Settle Verizon Patent Lawsuit

6:30 am on November 17, 2007 | Category: Business, VoIP, Law

Broadband phone provider, Vonage, discovered on Thursday that it must pay $120 million to settle its patent infringement dispute with Verizon Communications, after a U.S. Court of Appeals denied a request to rehear the case.

Vonage has already agreed to settle the case, but would have only had to pay $80 million if the court had agreed to a rehearing. Granted that this did not happen, the VoIP startup must now pay a total of $117.5 million to Verizon and $2.5 million to charities, as per the terms of the companies’ settlement agreement.

“We were not surprised but disappointed that the court denied our request for a rehearing of the case,” commented Vonage spokesman, Charlie Sahner. “We are pleased to continue putting litigation behind us and keep focusing on our core business.”

In recent weeks, Vonage has also settled a patent infringement case with Sprint Nextel, and made progress towards doing the same with AT&T. Its ailing stock has more than doubled since the Sprint settlement was announced, but remains more than 85% lower than its $17 IPO price a year and a half ago.