As VoIP pioneer Vonage (News - Alert) fights a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit with Verizon, it now has something else on its plate. According to a report from The Register, SunRocket (News - Alert), which recently shut down its services, filed a case against Vonage as well, alleging that the company illegally used its customer list and is now seeking "injunctive and declaratory relief".

 

According to SunRocket, Vonage got the customer list from a third party and started using it to further business, which has hurt SunRocket’s deals with Unified and 8x8 (News - Alert).

 

SunRocket and Vonage has began a negotiation for the possible acquisition of SunRocket by Vonage during which both companies promised a vow of silence about the information they were exposed to during negotiations. The deal fell off and SunRocket decided to shut shop and selected Unified Communications (News - Alert) Corp. and 8x8 as the companies its customers would move to.

 

According to Vonage, the list was obtained by a New York-based marketing firm, Paradysz Matera, who they say obtained that list from a data reseller.

 

Vonage spokesman Charles Sahner was quoted in The Register (News - Alert) report as saying the company obtained the list of customers through an established marketing company which assured them that there was no illegality involved with the list. Although the company agrees that during the negotiations for acquisitions, the transfer of assets were discussed, they also say there was no mention of any customer list.