By Sharla Sikes
Is it déjà vu?
Nope.
Another company has leveled a lawsuit against Vonage.
AT&T www.att.com charges that Vonage over one patent relating to linking a standard phone to the Internet. The suit was filed in a Wisconsin federal court and is seeking to block Vonage from continuing to use the technology and “compensatory and treble damages and attorneys’ fees in unspecified amounts.” The suit claims Vonage has sold packet-based phone products which use technology protected by AT&T’s patent.
The two companies say they are in negotiations to settle the case out of court.
“It’s our preference to settle disputes through negotiation rather than litigation,” said Sharon O’Leary, Vonage’s chief legal officer, in a statement. “We will continue to work toward an amicable solution.”
The court in Madison, Wis., where the suit was filed, ranked as the best place for patent holders to file infringement lawsuits from 1995 to 2006, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study this year.
It’s hard to say if Vonage had really stepped on this many toes by infringing upon patents. That seems a less than intelligent business plan.
Some speculate that it’s the patent system at fault, such as Alexander Wolfe at InformationWeek.
“The U.S. patent system—set up in 1793 and modernized in 1953—is simply not up to the task of assessing the patentability of modern technological developments,” he says. “For one thing, the patent office has been periennially understaffed. More important, its examiners don’t have the kind of broad or deep expertise required to parse patent applications in everything from biotech to embedded software.”
He goes on to say that prior art further muddies the issue. Prior art states that something which “should be obvious from that which already exists” should not be patented.
Sprint, Verizon, Klausner Technologies and now AT&T have sued Vonage over various patent infringements, costing Vonage millions in settlements.
It almost makes you think that Vonage, as the largest independent provider of VoIP service, is being forced out of the market …
Now who wins here? Not the FCC, Not Apple, Not the providers, but CISCO, AdTran, NetGear and the likes. The more data we’re passing through, the higher the need for fast switching network gear and equipment. I strongly believe wireless should and would be the main focus of these providers. There needs to be a second network…sort of a “second internet” that should drive this process..
Alani K,
http://phantomdatasystems.com
http://www.uniatelecom.com