Earlier this week the Supreme Court issued new guidance on what
'obviousness' means. A patent cannot be granted for an invention
that is an 'obvious' extension to existing technology. The Court
said that the benchmark used to test obvious – the 'teaching,
suggestion or motivation' test – was not the right one and made it
easier for patents to be challenged on the grounds of
obviousness.
Vonage has now said that its case could have been decided
differently under the new guidance on obviousness, which it says
puts a greater premium on a common sense view of what should be
patentable.
"Vonage is confident this ruling should have a positive impact
on its case," said a company statement. "Vonage has consistently
maintained it does not infringe on Verizon's technology, asserting
in its brief today that the validity of Verizon's patents should be
retried by the US District Court in light of the US Supreme Court's
decision."
"We are very encouraged by the Supreme Court's decision and the
giant step it represents towards achieving much-needed patent
reform in this country," said Jeffrey Citron, founder and interim
chief executive of Vonage. "The Supreme Court's decision should
have positive implications for Vonage and our pending patent
litigation with Verizon."
Vonage was found guilty in March of violating patents owned by
Verizon relating to the connection of its phone network to the
traditional phone system. It was fined $58 million and ordered to
pay a 5.5% royalty fee to Verizon on revenue earned by its
technology.
In a move that Vonage said threatened its viability as a
business, the courts also issued an injunction preventing it
signing up new customers to its service.
Vonage argued that the high rate of customer turnover in the
VoIP market and its consequent need to sign up new customers all
the time just to stay in business meant that the injunction could
threaten the whole company. It won a block on the injunction for
the duration of its appeal against the decision.
Vonage also said when the verdict was announced that it could
produce a technical workaround that would avoid using the disputed
technology. It had to admit weeks later that it had no such
workaround.
Vonage has had a turbulent time since it floated on the stock
market last year. Its chief executive, Michael Snyder, recently
left the company and founder Jeffrey Citron took over.
