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Judge delays signing Vonage injunction

The Vonage/Verizon patent spat continues as the former vows to seek further delay in an injunction being actioned as well as launching an appeal against the verdict.

By Maggie Holland, 26 Mar 2007 at 00:36

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The injunction issued last week against Vonage regarding its alleged use of Verizon's VoIP technology will not come into effect for two weeks, at which point the company may be granted a further grace period before the ruling is fully actioned.

Either way, Vonage has vowed to seek a stay by appealing to the Federal Court of Appeals in addition to preparing a full appeal against the overall verdict reached earlier this month, which declared that the company must pay $58 million to Verizon for infringing three patents.

"Our fight is far from over," said Mike Snyder, Vonage's chief executive.

"We remain confident that Vonage has not infringed on any of Verizon's patents - a position we will continue vigorously contending in federal appeals court - and that Vonage will ultimately prevail in this case."

Customers won't be adversely affected by the current patent litigation or see any serious changes to their service as a result, according to Snyder.

"Despite this obvious attempt by Verizon to cripple Vonage, the litigation will not stop Vonage from continuing to provide quality VoIP service to our millions of customers."

Vonage is adamant that it has not infringed on any of Verizon's patents and says it will continue to vigorously defend its position, according to Sharon O'Leary, Vonage's executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary.

"Vonage relied on open-standard, off-the-shelf technology when developing its service," she said.

"In fact, evidence introduced in court failed to prove that Vonage relied on Verizon's VoIP technology, and instead showed that in 2003 Verizon began exploring ways to copy Vonage's technology."

At the March 8 ruling, John Thorne, Verizon's senior vice president and deputy general counsel, said: "Verizon's innovations are central to its strategy of building the best communications networks in the world.

"We are proud of our inventors and pleased the jury stood up for the legal protections they deserve."

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