Sprint Claims Vonage Wouldn't Exist Without Sprint's Patents
from the stop-laughing dept
Already facing possible shutdown and huge fines from Verizon over some VoIP patents, Vonage is apparently facing a similar threat from Sprint as well. The case was filed nearly two years ago, but it finally is underway, with Sprint making the ridiculous claim that without Sprint's patents, Vonage wouldn't exist. We've already gone through this with Verizon, but there's a ton of prior art on VoIP offerings -- and almost all of these patents seem overly broad and quite speculative. Lots of different folks all figured out how VoIP could work at about the same time (suggesting that the concept was the natural progression of the technology, which isn't something that's supposed to receive patent protection). Vonage's real innovation was in figuring out how to package and market the service -- something that neither Sprint nor Verizon did. Both companies are now simply trying to shut down a rival who out-innovated them in the market. That's not what the patent system is designed to do, and it's a blatant abuse of the patent system by both telcos to claim that Vonage somehow "stole" anything from them.
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Filed Under: patent thicket, patents, voip
Companies: sprint, verizon, vonage
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Personally, I think Verizon is trying to kill Vonage just because it can. Vonage pissed off a lot of people in the industry.
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Re: Random Thoughts
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Re:
I think Verizon really does care about Vonage. Not in a competition sense though. If Verizon wins this case, it'll give them precedence to go after the other competitors. I would've thought that Verizon would go after smaller competitors. However, Vonage, in a lawsuit sense, is probably a better mark since, as you have seen, the case probably seemed more likely to go to trial (don't know if/how any settlement talks went), which, with a win, would give the precedent necessary for other cases.
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Who really wants to go after someone who has as big a legal staff and as deep pockets as you do?
If these lawsuits don't kill Vonage, their business plan will.
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People talk about the confusion of this lawsuit (I thought Verizon owned the patents?) but there are many different bogus patents that Vonage could be hit with.
There, you left a word out. Fixed it for you.
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Patent Reform
The whole thing is practically corrupt and the people who abuse it are worse.
Who ever votes that Sprint and Verizon both know they are abusing the patent system say "I."
That's what I believe.
Hey America, Wake Up.
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What I find amazing...
This is OUR Country, aren't WE supposed to be making the laws, not the TelCo's and CableCo's with deep pockets?
Every day that goes by I think more and more than this government should be dismantled and rebuilt. We're living in a land of laws that were written by rich men long before the turn of the century and those laws have been twisted so much by modern rich men that it's just entirely corrupt.
But how do you tear down a government that controls the largest and most powerful military in the world? We as a people protest because we have a constitutional right to dismantle a faulty government, yet that same government can say "no, we're staying and you're going home or we'll arrest you all".
I'm going to be starting a website soon for people to congregate and device a way to tear apart this government without getting a bunch of people shot. Not because I hate the law, but because the law should be just and fair and that law should be written by the people, not the corporations.
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Re: What I find amazing...
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Re: What I find amazing...
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Gvmt says Sprint wouldn't exist w/o granted monopo
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Vonage invented advertising, not VOIP
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You hit the nail on the head... again
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Sprint is deceptive and people aren't going to tak
My company is in Austin, TX and Sprint insisted that they have excellent coverage and could provide us the GPS tracking that we needed. We got over a dozen phones and two high-speed data cards. Since we started service, we have had terrible coverage, text messages take up to 12 hours to reach the recipients, and the high-speed data cards have never worked. The GPS tracking was a joke and NOT what they showed to us.
We have talked to the sales people, tech support, corporate, and have never gotten a response. Recently they have raised the text messaging rates even though we were under contract.
What is the purpose of a contract if the company can change the rates but won't let the consumer out of the contract?
People are starting to wise up about Sprints deceptive practices and how cellphone contracts do not benefit the consumer, only the vendor. All they do is lock you into service that doesn't work.
Adam Brown
Longhorn Services - longhorn-services.com
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tracking phone
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