Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million - Consumerist Comments

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

royal72 — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:10:26 EST

is there no honor among thieves anymore?!

royal72

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

Moonshine Mike — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:42:19 EST

the patent problems were over billing?

WTF? How you generate a flat rate bill is now a patentable product?

Moonshine Mike

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

y2julio — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:42:29 EST

I have Vonage as my VoIP provider. I love their service. Never had any issues. Would hate to lose them.

y2julio

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

Pelagius — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:30:36 EST

Great. One less option for telecommunications. One company to rule them all! This is bad, bad news for consumers.

Pelagius

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

KenyG — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:28:03 EST

- Mary Marsala -

Vonage will appeal. They should counter-sue that the patents are in-valid. They claim Net2phone operated on the same premise as the patents and predates them. They should request reexamination through the patent office.

Don't expect anything to happen soon. It will take a long, long time.

KenyG

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

Mary Marsala with Fries — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:18:39 EST

Nobody seems to be realizing that with this verdict, Verizon can go after ALL the VOIP services. ALL OF THEM. And I'm sure they plan to; Vonage was just the biggest and best one to test their 3-easy-steps-to-monopoly strategy on.

Their patent? Is for any method of using an IP network for telephone service. And Vonage, like all the other IP companies, came up with their system on their own; nobody used any code or anything of Verizon's. They're shutting down their competition because they happened to be the first to think of filing the patent, and the Patent Office just doesn't understand technology. That's the entire basis of their claim.

SOFTWARE PATENTS ARE STUPID. I sincerely hope that this obviously anti-competitive and shady set of lawsuits serves to eventually get them phased out. (Note that I'm not referring to the copyrighting of actual code; that's different, as it protects something you actually created. A software *patent* gives you a monopoly over a method of using code, whether you write it or not. It's indefensible, and it's killing competition in tech markets.)

Hmph. I'm going to lose two business lines and a home service if Verizon succeeds in their quest, but I'll talk over tin cans before I give them the satisfaction of having misused the court system to get MY business.

Mary Marsala with Fries

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

homerjay- Smiling politely — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:54:03 EST

I just went back to Verizon. They've got "come back to the dark side" deals going on. Nothing earth shattering but it helps heal the wounds faster.

homerjay- Smiling politely

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

Hawkins — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:41:57 EST

@homerjay: Would you mind sharing with the group WHERE you went?

I am getting nervous about my phone number, too.

I also note that VG is now trading at $4.86, down from their recent IPO at $17. This can't be good.

Hawkins

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

homerjay- Smiling politely — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:32:58 EST

I got out last week because of this impending verdict. Its a shame, really. I liked their service but I couldn't risk losing my phone number that I ported to them last year. Got smacked with the $40 cancellation fee, but what can you do?

homerjay- Smiling politely

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

Benny — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:51:11 EST

I'm tired.

I read that as "Law sluts: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million"

Benny

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

ZonzoMaster — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:14:09 EST

Ehrm, isnt it?: "Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million" as in, with an I? i might be wrong i mean, my first language is spanish =P.

ZonzoMaster

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

niteflytes — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:08:31 EST

I like Vonage. Never had a bit of trouble. I'd hate to lose my Vonage phone service.

niteflytes

Lawsuits: Vonage Owes Verizon $58 Million

Darkest Daze — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:57:05 EST

I'm so happy over this. Vonage screwed us and now they're getting screwed. They never helped me fix the bad service, NEVER moved my phone number over after 3 months; I was supposed to get 6 months free, I recieved none, and they charged me for the router they sent me by mistake, that we sent back to them. They refused to refund any of the money they overcharged us.

Hope they're happy with that extra $200+ they charged us, cause I'm ecstatic to hear they're losing $60million.

Darkest Daze