Re: Ruling May Be End for Vonage; Judge Enjoins Use Of Key Technology

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:08adnbVtl5XJo4rbnZ2dnUVZ_g2dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxx
> "Thomas" <tauzinger@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
> > > U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton approved the request by Verizon
> > > Communications for a permanent injunction two weeks after a jury in
> > > Alexandria found that three of its patents had been infringed by
Vonage,
> > > including one for the technology allowing the Internet company's 2.2
> million
> > > customers to call regular phones."
> > >
> > > What's that slogan from their ads?  One smart move . . .
> > >
> > > --
> > > Bobby G.
> >
> > One more reason to sign up with ViaTalk.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Thomas
>
> Oops.  I accidentally deleted the URL (cough, spam, cough)
>
> was it: http://www.batterphone.org  or was it
>
> http://www.bitterphone.org
>
> or maybe http://www.bettorphone.org
>
> Why would we think your access to the phone network is any more protected
> than Vonage?  I suspect you're just a much smaller player in VOIP that
> Verizon hasn't "gotten to" in the first wave.  Sometimes, all a company
has
> to do is punish one patent infringer *severely* for the others to just die
> from shock.  The judge in the case just enjoined Vonage from signing up
any
> new customers.  My lawyer friends tell me that's the kiss of death.
Vonage
> lives or dies depending on whether Verizon wants to be nice or not.  If
> Verizon *had* been willing to settle for a percent of Vonage's income,
they
> wouldn't try to keep Vonage from getting new customers.  It's clear they
> want them for dinner, not as partners or even serfs paying up some huge
> tithe.
>
> When the big fish, Vonage, is all eaten up, Verizon's lawyers will
doubtless
> cast their nets into the Internet ocean to sweep up the remaining small
fry.
> The irony is, the more customers you sign up, the bigger the damages
Verizon
> can sue for when they finally file suit.  Maybe it was
> http://www.battlephone.org  (-:

Not that anyone's remotely interested except spammers  . . .

Looks like they got a reprieve at the appellate level, only because the
ruling would have effectively killed them and everyone knew it:

<<The lawyer for Vonage told the court yesterday that the company loses more
than 50,000 subscribers a month, so being prevented from acquiring new
customers could have a serious impact on the company?s survival.

?It?s the difference of cutting off oxygen as opposed to the bullet in the
head,? the lawyer for Vonage, Roger Warin, told the court, according to The
Associated Press.  . . . Gigi Sohn, a lawyer with Public Knowledge, a public
interest research organization in Washington . . . said . . . ?I think
Verizon is pulling out all the stops to put Vonage out of business?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/technology/07vonage.html?ref=technology

--
Bobby G.