Vonage Loses VOIP Patent Case vs Verizon

Vonage today was ordered by an eight member jury to pay Verizon 58 million dollars plus 5.5% royalty rate on future Vonage earnings.Verizon was asking the Jury to award them over 197 million and 4.95 royalty rates per customer. But it would appear that h Jury settled for a quarter of Verizon's request.With various other VoIP companies breathing down Vonage's neck, Vonage really needed to win this case. The dispute revolves around 5 patents Verizon engineers devised in the mid 1990’s.It is unclear how Vonage customers are going to be effected by the decision but same analyst are already claiming that their customers will see an increase in fees. Some also warn that other VoIP providers my face similar lawsuits.

t'd be mighty painful for Vonage to cut off service to all 2.2 million of its customers (they'd still be able to make VoIP calls to other Vonage subscribers, but who'd stick around for that?), and it's not clear how likely it is that Verizon will receive the injunction it's seeking.