Vonage Asks Appeals Court to Throw Out Verizon Case

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling in a major patent case, Vonage Holdings Corp. asked to have the patent infringement case against it thrown out.

On Monday, Supreme Court judges issued a decision in the patent law case KSR v. Teleflex that has been pending for several years. Essentially, the judges made it harder for applicants to obtain patents. They upheld a test that helps determine when an invention is too obvious to warrant patent protection, but said it was being used too narrowly.

The decision said common sense should be used when assessing whether an invention is ordinary or obvious, which would make it ineligible for a patent.

Vonage immediately asked the appeals court – which is slated to hear oral arguments on June 25 – to dump the case it recently lost to Verizon Communications Inc. and send it back to a lower court for a new trial. Verizon claimed Vonage had infringed on three of its VoIP patents. Vonage all along has said the technology is not proprietary and that it has not infringed on intellectual property.

"We are very encouraged by the Supreme Court's decision and the giant step it represents towards achieving much-needed patent reform in this country," said Jeffrey Citron, Vonage chairman and interim CEO. "The Supreme Court's decision should have positive implications for Vonage and our pending patent litigation with Verizon.”

Verizon Communications Inc. www.verizon.com  

Vonage Holdings Corp. www.vonage.com

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