Verizon Gets Its Wish, Vonage Hit With Injunction
from the nice-work-if-you-can-get-it dept
A couple of weeks ago, Verizon won its patent infringement case against Vonage, and pushed for the judge to issue an injunction against the VoIP company in addition to awarding Verizon monetary damages. Today, they got that wish: the judge issued a permanent injunction against Vonage, and gave the company two weeks to organize and appeal and a technical workaround. This is pretty ridiculous, as the judge apparently doesn't agree with the Supreme Court's thoughts on injunctions in patent cases. What's slightly amusing, though, is that Verizon's lawyer essentially admits the company has turned to a lawsuit because it doesn't have any other way to compete in the market and is losing hundreds of thousands of customers to Vonage. A judge bought that line, saying an injunction was necessary because simply awarding damages "does not prevent continued erosion of the client base of the plaintiff." That gets to the heart of the matter: patents don't stand to encourage innovation, but rather simply as a tool to shut down those companies that do innovate. It's a pretty silly way to compete by suing your competition out of business in order to reduce customer choice. After all, wouldn't it be better to have customers who actually want to patronize your business, rather than those who simply do so because they have no choice?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
F#@$
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
better to give customers a choice?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
Your way of doing ethical business is just like the doctors and drug companies, they don't want to cure you, they just want you to keep coming back for more visits and more drugs. Monopoly, what a benefit to society? The Mafia have their way of monopolizing too, so how come theirs is illegal and yours is not?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
To suggest that it's better to innovate than to gain a monopoly position is just dumb.
From the customer prospective it is better to innovate than gain a monopoly. I would much rather choose Verizon because I decide for myself that they are the best choice. Forcing me to use your service is a surefire way to make me look for alternatives or just decide not to any if there is no better choice.
And if my competition does it by infringing on MY patents, on intellectual property I developed and own, then they should be ordered to cease infringing
And that is the main point of patent hoarding. Verizon went for a broad patent and then didn't develop it. They just sat around and intentionally waited for someone to actually do something in the VoIP space so they could cry foul. Now Verizon will sue Vonage into oblivion, take the ideas the Vonage developed, and about 1 year later Verizon will roll out its "new and innovative" VoIP service that will be nothing more than the dressed up corpse of Vonage
If I repackage your articles and use them to steal your traffic, you wouldn't want an injunction?
That depends on why the people at Techdirt put articles on this site. If they are in it for the money then yes they may get mad. But if they are just trying to spread the work about tech related news then they just might thank you or not even care.
Businesses are in it to make money but for some reason they still try to convince customers that they are in it to serve the customer. If Verizon were in it only to serve the customer then they wouldn't be trying to sue Vonage instead they would just go to the drawing boards and try to out perform Vonage. You are either in it for the money or to serve the customer but you can't have it both ways. So that means customer service is your real goal or its just a means to dare I say...make money?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: better to give customers a choice?
I owned my own business as well. But I also welcome the competition. It helps one to stay focused on the customers needs, and not just ones own pockets.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This was all my idea - they owe me
I thought, hey, if we could transmit this text over the bbs (on the 300baud modem) we could talk to people on the other end (converting text to speech on the transmitting end would be the hard part). So obviously all these 'telephone' and 'voip' companies are infringing on my ideas and they need to pay me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
SAM stood for Software Automated Mouth. I had it for my C64 and Atari 800.
Oh yeah, I'll be dropping Verizon right quick!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The patent system was designed to SHARE information (that's why patent records are so available). SHARING technology increased human knowledge and spurs the economy. In return for SHARING your technology, the government does a very strange thing and gives you limited protection for your idea for a limited time.
There is no inalienable right you get that stops you from coping my ideas, IP is a very abstract concept and one only granted by a government.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Free Market always prevails... Until someone sues
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What is so wrong?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is so wrong?
Actually it is about sharing. Patents were suppose to be a way to foster innovation. How? By publishing ideas and allowing others to look at them and build upon previous ideas. But at the same time inventors have to eat too, so why not give them a bit of protection and allow them to profit from the invention for a limited time? So as an incentive from the government, an awarded patent is like payment for showing the world how your devices or idea works. So yes patents are suppose to be about sharing.
Well, at least they used to be.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Intellectual property, Monopoly, and Protectionism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How can you be so sure
Besides the lawsuit isn't about infringement. Quote from the article:
"What's slightly amusing, though, is that Verizon's lawyer essentially admits the company has turned to a lawsuit because it doesn't have any other way to compete in the market and is losing hundreds of thousands of customers to Vonage."
Verizon just needs to get with the times!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Verizon v. Vonage
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I smell B$
To all of you Verizon supporters and monopoly fans... with your logic, you would support the idea of McDonald's being the ONLY fast food. Man, would that totally SUCK if my only choice for a burger was the $HIT they sell at McD's. It's the same with phone service. It is going to royally suck ass if my ONLY choice for phone service is by the big, greedy, evil TelCo known as Verizon.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sounds Like
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fcc violation
and if that does happen, could the judge be removed for negligence???
i have said this over and over and over again. we have these technophobic fossils making laws for tech they don't understand. and that is a lot of our problem.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I wonder
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I wonder
History has shown, it matters not how big you are. Its just as easy for Verizon to fall as it is Vonage. In the end, it's just the souind of the "boom" that makes the difference.
For my own $0.02: What ever happened to the whole concept behind the Telecommuniations Reform act of 1996?!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WOW
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They did have some kind of funny commercials though.
IPO at $17, current price $3. Well, at least the founders of Vonage made a ton of dough.
Did anyone thing Vonage ever had a chance? Really?....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Verizon vs. Vonage
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The real injustice is the folks that bought the stock in the IPO at $17 and now the stock is at $3. Think Citron cares? What, the SEC going to pull his license again? Fine him another $22 million again?
Vonage was a shipwreck long before this lawsuit, it was headed to the bottom, the suit will just speed up the end.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wouldn't it be better ??
WE might think so, but Verizon and its ilk don't care - as long as your checks go into their pockets. It's not even rocket science.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ummm, no. Given the choice, it would be much better if customers didn't have a choice.
One funny thing I noticed earlier was that 3 of the Google ads on this page were from Verizon.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
all i have to say
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Verizon is Veri bad Zone
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
just a thought
Everyone is in it for the money. As a consumer, it is important that we know the business as well as the product. Somewhere along the line the quality of service got lost.
What about the little guy? Doesn't it make a difference if those who don't know are told what is right?
Being a recent college graduate I have to wonder, do I need new ideas to get a job or should I even bother because no one wants something new and fresh.
Thanks guys. This has confused me even more.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Patents versus Trademarks
Why can't the same be applied to patents? If you patent something and make no (reasonable) effort to use it, but just sit back and wait for someone else to, you lose it.
Trademark trolls don't exist for this very reason. The same is also (at least sometimes) applied to domain names and squatters.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Patent/Copyright = Guaranteed Right to Be Rich?
Whatever happened to survival of the fittest?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Patent/Copyright = Guaranteed Right to Be Rich
It's very similar to what AOL tried to stir up when some of the early cable companies started to roll out high speed internet service. AOL realized that dial-up service was doomed and tried to promote this idea that the cable lines should be opened up to other companies to provide service. By confusing non-technical people with nonsense, you can accomplish a lot.
btw, lots of people that pay for cable or DSL STILL think that they need to pay for AOL in order to be online - even though they are already connected to the internet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Verizon needs to adapt and adapt quickly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wireless Patent Infringement
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
patents and more
http://www.historical-markers.org/usptohistory.cgi
to read this patent. take a look here:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1& u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,359,880.PN.&OS=PN/6,359,880& amp;RS=PN/6,359,880
"If I were a business owner, and I am, I would absolutely LOVE to have customers have no other choice but me, and I would do everything in my power to keep that situation in place."
I honestly can't believe there are still people out there who thinks it is better to take away a person's choice. Having a Choice is what the U.S. was founded on. It is the basis of freedom.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anyone who has dealth with Vonage on a business level knows how bad they are. You'd think they (and not the VOIP providers charging 1/4 their price and 4x the service) would be turning profit. But Vonage sucks. Go to www.vonagesucks.com and sign up if you don't believe me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i work at a..................
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: i work at a..................
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They Both Suck!
May be I can get a Verizon Lawyer interested in a class action suit against Vonage by collecting all Vonage's victims and sue the crap out of Vonage... Hmmm, I like that
Idea!
Verizon get rid of their trashy competition and we can make a few bucks... aaaaa, well actually, I don't care if I don't even make a penny as long as Vonage gets what they deserve!
Verizon has their own issues with all the cable companies now jumping on the band wagon and offering telephone service.
I hate Verizon and I think I hate Vonage even more, they both have their negatives!
May be a blackhole will come and gobble them both up!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No problem with Vonage
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Screw em
In my area for a LAND line you get one choice, Verizon.
And for that matter you have one choice for electricity, as I am sure most of you do as well.
That these are not deemed monopolies and allowed to survive despite having even less customer service than competition is due entirely to the fact that we assholes let it happen. By now both telephones and electricity should be universal, regulated, and controlled by the people.
Until then, I threw my cell phone in the river. I suggest you go cold turkey and try the same.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]