Saturday, December 22,2007 @ 12:10pm
Vonage, AT&T call truce over VoIP patents
Vonage and AT&T late yesterday announced that they have settled a dispute between the two over alleged patent infringement by the former's voice-over-IP (VoIP) service. Although both companies have declined to provide exact details of the agreement, the deal comes several weeks after the two had agreed in principle to end litigation that accused Vonage of infringing on patents for connecting phone service to Internet systems.
The settlement is likely to involve both a lump sum payment as well as royalties based on previous lawsuits settled by Vonage. The Internet telephony company has faced multiple lawsuits relating to similar VoIP patents and has struck deals both with Sprint and Verizon to continue to run its existing service without significant modifications. Verizon's complaint in particular would have blocked Vonage from connecting to its phone network, significantly curbing the latter's ability to serve its American customer base.