Telecoms giant Verizon won a US court ruling this month which
said that Vonage had violated some of its US patents. The court
granted Verizon an injunction against Vonage signing new customers
because of the patent violation ruling.
Vonage argued that the bar on its signing new customers would
endanger the entire company because of the high numbers of
customers leaving and joining VoIP networks. It won a temporary
stay on the injunction but has now won a permanent stay.
"It's business as usual for us," said Vonage chief executive
Jeffrey Citron. "We remain focused on growing and strengthening our
business and driving toward profitability."
Vonage is appealing against the decision, which could see it
paying licence fees on its technology or even being barred from
using it altogether if it does not win the appeal.
"We continue to believe we have not infringed on any of
Verizon's technology and remain optimistic that we will ultimately
prevail in this litigation," said Citron.
When the original adjudication was announced in March, Vonage
said that it would find a technical workaround in order to keep its
service operating without using the patents in dispute. Last week,
though, the company admitted that it had no such workaround and
could not operate its business without using the patents.
Vonage was found to have infringed three Verizon patents on
technology which connected its network to the main telephone
network. It was ordered to pay $58 million in damages and to pay a
5.5% licence fee on revenues from the technology.
Verizon had claimed violation of seven patents and $197 million
in damages, but the court found that Vonage's infringement was not
wilful, which carries with it a tripling of damages penalties.
Vonage has had a turbulent time since it floated on the stock
market last year. Its chief executive, Michael Snyder, left the
company two weeks ago and founder Jeffrey Citron took over.
