Vonage, the beleaguered VoIP provider, has hit further problems today after they admitted they had no “workaround” to resolve the Verizon patent dispute. Vonage even confirmed in a statement that a solution is not feasible given the strength of the patents.
A court recently decided that Vonage had infringed Verizons patented technology for routing calls between the internet and standard phone networks. Vonage has been banned from using the technology to service new customers, existing customers are not affected.
Vonage requested an emergency stay, telling investors not to worry and that a “workaround” would be found.
In a statement provided on Friday it seems that Vonage are unable to find a solution:
“Vonage currently has no workarounds that moot the need for a stay. While Vonage has studied methods for designing around the patents, removal of the allegedly infringing technology, if even feasible, could take many months to fully study and implement.”
Shares in Vonage have plunged more than 80 percent since last year and CEO Mike Snyder resigned just last week. The company is losing 2.5% of its 2.2 million customers every month.
Whilst the above might indicate a bleak future for Vonage some analysts are painting a more positive picture. Apparently the Verizon patents might be illegitimate as they are based on VocalTec technology dating back to 1996.
The claims in both patents were anticipated by open standards assembled by the VoIP Forum in 1996 and published in January 1997 with the participation of members from Cisco Systems, Microsoft, IBM, Nortel, Intel, Motorola, Lucent, and Vocaltec Communications, among others. The work of the VoIP Forum, publication plans, and disclosure requirements were noted in a correspondence between the VoIP Forum and the ITU Telecommunications Standardization Sector. Verizon filed another patent application (6,298,062) in the same time period that does reference the Kahane-Petrack paper of January 1997.
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