Filed under: Household

VOIP provider Vonage is doing a bit of reshuffling at the top, while putting the finishing touches on a $215 million infusion of cash from Silver Point Finance LLC. Dry enough? Perhaps, but we’re sure Jeffery Citron, CEO and current interim chief executive of the recently embattled company will be pleased to get the helping hand. Citron is currently preparing for a swap of duties as well, taking a step back from the day-to-day — which will probably provide a welcome respite from the flurry of legal hits the provider has taken. Enjoy your vacation, Jeff.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Although the press release issued to announce the settlement between Vonage and AT&T earlier this month is still the shortest we’ve seen in all of 2007, we’re pretty certain the one doled out to trumpet the truce between Vonage and Nortel is holding down the two-spot. In just five wee sentences, we learn that the two have agreed in principle to end the litigation pending between ‘em, and though no cash will be changing hands, the agreement does involve a limited cross license to three patents per firm. Way to put the past behind before entering into the new year, we say.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In possibly the shortest press release of the year, Vonage announced that they’ve settled — as expected — with AT&T over their ongoing patent dispute. No details were given, but their dime stock lifted 12%, so maybe someone on Wall St. knows something we don’t about whether it was AT&T or Vonage that got the raw deal.

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Filed under: Cellphones

A follow-up to our earlier story regarding Verizon’s patent lawsuit against Vonage: the latter company has lost its appeal against the former, and is now looking at having to pay the full $175.5 million settlement, plus $2.5 million to charity. It’s been a bad few days for Vonage indeed, with the company’s shares dropping 87 percent since IPO, and a tenth of its workforce out of a job. When you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way is up, right?

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The roller coaster ride that is Vonage’s litigation trail is hitting yet another high point, that is, if you consider paying out “just” $39 million a positive. Reportedly, the internet telephony firm is “in talks” with AT&T to settle a patent suit filed just last month, but no hands have shook on anything just yet. If you’ll recall, this would be the fourth settlement reached by Vonage in the last two months, but alas, it’d still walk away from the table a cool $39 million lighter. No, we don’t know if this nightmare will ever end for Vonage, but at least it looks to be headed in the right direction (if only momentarily).

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The world’s favorite ATM is being hit up for even more coin today, as Vonage (presumably begrudgingly) agreed to resolve the patent lawsuit between it and Verizon. Reportedly, the actual amount that the VoIP provider will be forced to pay “depends on how the Court of Appeals decides Vonage’s pending petition for rehearing regarding two of the Verizon patents.” The breakdown is like so: if Vonage wins rehearing on either patent in question “or if the injunction is vacated,” it’ll owe $80 million. If the outfit doesn’t win rehearing on either patent or “if the stay is lifted reinstating the injunction,” it will soon find its thinning wallet a full $117.5 million lighter. Sounds like a prototypical lose-lose situation (or win-win, depending on perspective).

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Just when you thought Vonage may be catching a breather from the total barrage of lawsuits it has been hit with of late, along comes none other than AT&T to prove you wrong. Reportedly, the company has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Madison, Wisconsin alleging that Vonage unlawfully violated a 1996 patent filing that “broadly describes the idea of routing telephone calls over data networks like the internet.” It sounds as though the fledgling VoIP provider is hoping to resolve the dispute before it goes to trial, but it did note that it “couldn’t guarantee” such an outcome. We’re tempted to ask how Vonage’s year could get any worse, but quite frankly, we’re not so sure we’d like the answer.

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Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Inventions and incentives have fueled the those using voice over IP to battle the imposing inertia of landline incumbents, as well as the cellphone’s continued cannibalization of long distance. The list of disruptive newcomers is long: cable companies offer adapter boxes for analog phones; a variety of companies have extended Skype via solutions that are both tethered to the PC and that operate over WiFi networks; and recently, Ooma (which will be discussed more in a future column) has made the tempting offer of free domestic long distance for life with the purchase of its $400 Ooma hub, which delivers additional benefits such as web-based voicemail and the functionality of a second line without a second phone number.

Into this crowded field has jumped magicJack, the brainchild of Dan Barislow, who developed the “10-10-xxx” phone numbers that enabled consumers to bypass their long-distance carrier more than a decade before the first Skype icon emitted its ascending loading tone. About the size of a double-wide USB flash drive, magicJack has a standard phone jack on its back that allows you to plug in any standard touch-tone telephone handset from a leading-edge DECT phone to an old princess design.

Continue reading Switched On: Cap’n magicJack’s port of call

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

One step forward, two (or more) steps back. That seems to be the recurring theme for Vonage these days, as just hours after officially requesting a review of the Verizon patent decision, the firm is now settling its legal dispute with Klausner Technologies. The settlement is the second this week for the outfit, and while no financial terms of the deal were discussed, Vonage was granted “a patent license related to voice messaging.” Another one down, who knows how many to go.

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Vonage, who has been hit up with a bevy of legal trouble in recent months, is officially seeking a review of the September 26th Verizon patent decision. Reportedly, the internet telephony outfit “filed a motion for a review by the original three-judge panel or the full panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.” According to Vonage Chief Legal Officer Sharon O’Leary, the move “represents the next logical step for Vonage in managing this litigation and continuing to move its business forward,” and she also stated that the firm would “continue to explore all legal options available to put the Verizon litigation to rest.”

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Vonage, everyone’s favorite “gettin’ sued by The Man” company has taken another beating in the Sprint-Nextel patent suit, agreeing to settle the case and license the telco’s Internet-calling technology for the tidy sum of $80 million. This comes hot on the heels of last month’s ruling, which stipulated that Vonage was to pay $69.5 million to Sprint over six patents which the mobile phone company says it had infringed. “We are pleased to resolve our dispute with Sprint and enter into a productive future relationship,” said Sharon O’Leary, General Counsel for Vonage, though it’s possible she wasn’t as ecstatic as that quote would have you believe. This is just another money-siphoning event for the VoIP company, which in March was hit up for $66 million from Verizon for illegally using some of its patents. If you’re keeping count at home, that’s $215.5 million paid out. If this keeps up, they may not even be able to afford those snappy commercials anymore. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

When it rains, it pours. At least we’re pretty sure Vonage thinks so, as for the second time in as many days, the firm has been hit with terrible news on the legal front. Just a day after being ordered to pay Sprint a whopping $69.5 million for patent infringement, the VoIP provider is now hearing that the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit “partially affirmed” the Verizon verdict from March. For those who have forgotten, that case proclaimed that Vonage owed Verizon $58 million in addition to royalties on future revenue, but the appeals court did “direct the trial court to reconsider the verdict on one of the three patents and it vacated the damages and royalty awards.” Notably, the “injunction has been stayed pending resolution of Vonage’s appeal,” but it will go into effect within a month if the outfit can’t secure an emergency stay from the US Supreme Court.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

While there was once talk of just selling Sprint the keys to the (crumbling) Vonage offices, it’s pretty safe to say that those plans are no longer in the cards. Apparently, Vonage Holdings Corp. “was ordered in federal court to pay $69.5 million in damages for infringing on six telecommunications patents owned by competitor Sprint-Nextel,” and if that wasn’t punishment enough, “jurors ordered Vonage to pay a five-percent royalty on future revenues.” If you’ll recall, this isn’t the first time Vonage has had to cough up major quantities of dough after being sued for patent infringement, and although a spokesman for the firm “declined comment,” the company has already announced that it will “seek to overturn” the verdict.

Read - Vonage to pay Sprint $69.5 million
Read - Vonage to Appeal Court Decision in Sprint Patent Suit

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!