Vonage Suspense May End Sooner Than Expected
Robert Poe on April 26th, 2007
Vonage may have less breathing room than previously thought as a result of a court's decision to hold hearings on its appeal in 60 days, rather than in the year or two the company was expecting. Ironically, the accelerated appeal resulted from a request by Vonage's own attorneys to expedite the process, the company claims. At the hearing, the appeals court will decide whether or not to uphold the March 8th, 2007 verdict that found Vonage guilty of infringing three VoIP patents held by Verizon.
According to a Vonage spokesperson, when its attorneys requested the expedition they expected the court to move the hearing date up by a few months, which would still have put it out close to a year. When the court set the date at June 25, they were so surprised that the company continued for some time to announce that the appeal process would take a year or more.
In fact the court has several other legal options besides an up-or-down decision on the appeal, each of which could significantly lengthen the process. If Vonage loses the appeal, the worse case scenario is that it could be forced to immediately pay Verizon the $58 million in damages, as well as 5.5 percent royalties on its revenues, that the judge in the trial imposed following the original verdict.
1 comment:
Vonage is the famous voip provider that have many useful features for VoIP user but there rate is a little bit more expensive than other provider (I mean not include well known as AT&T, Verizon)
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