Sprint Nextel and Vonage Settle Patent Dispute
Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) and Vonage (NYSE: VG) today announced that they have settled their ongoing patent dispute and entered into a licensing arrangement under Sprint’s Voice over Packet (”VOP”) patent portfolio. On September 25, 2007, a jury in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., found that Vonage had infringed six Sprint patents. The settlement agreement resolves all claims related to this dispute.
In addition, Sprint has agreed to license Vonage its VOP portfolio, which comprises more than 100 patents covering different methods, components and systems that efficiently connect telephone calls between a regular telephone network and a packet-switched network such as the Internet.
“We are pleased to resolve our dispute with Sprint and enter into a productive future relationship” said Sharon O’Leary, Vonage chief legal officer.
“We view this settlement and licensing agreement as a validation of the strength and breadth of our patent portfolio,” said Harley Ball, Sprint Nextel’s vice president of intellectual property. “This is an affirmation of Sprint’s research and development and a testament to the rich history of innovation at Sprint Nextel.
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The only winners here are the lawyers because VoIP is a great offer that delivers real value. Pity since it is likely that Vonage will hemorrhage due to the FUD factor (fear, uncertainty and doubt). And worse, it will give a black eye to all of the other good providers like Net2Phone and Lingo.
I have Net2Phone and I like them because they seem to have focused primarily on developing technology with a great set of features - rather than throw money at campaigns. After more than 10 years, they are not the Johnny come lately so at least I feel safe with them.