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Vonage Loses to Sprint NextelThese are mighty difficult times for Vonage (News - Alert), as the incumbent providers have ganged up against them and have decided to compete on patents as opposed to technology. A federal jury has ruled that Vonage has to pay $69.5 million in damages to Sprint (News - Alert) Nextel for using its patents. This is ultimately terrible news for consumers. I continue to be amazed at phone companies who say they have patents for VoIP
The reality of the situation is Vonage is a fantastic marketing company and not a technology company. Technology companies often file for and receive numerous patents. A broad patent portfolio is a shield against patent lawsuits.
So Vonage had limited patent protection and marketing that should have made all the telcos envious. This is quite an achievement and shaking up a century-old industry is something to be proud of.
What is sad, however, is how easy it is to wipe a company away using not technology or better customer service but instead a patent portfolio which was amassed when the government was admittedly giving away patents too freely. So the IP
Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s Whitepaper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers whitepapers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. More Hosted VoIP Community Stories
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