Vonage Won’t Get Appeal, Must Pay Verizon

Vonage Holdings Corp. will pay $120 million to end the patent infringement lawsuit it lost to Verizon Communications Inc. earlier this year.

A U.S. appeals court last week refused to reconsider the case and Vonage now must pay Verizon $117.5 million and give $2.5 million to charity. Vonage hoped to trim that cost to $80 million, which would have happened if the federal appeals court had agreed to hear Vonage’s case.

A jury last March found that Vonage infringed on some of Verizon’s VoIP patents and ordered Vonage to pay $58 million, plus 5.5 percent royalty fees on all of its future revenue.

Vonage’s stock has since dropped to all-time lows as the company lost a CEO, restructured its operations and subsequently lost another patent suit to Sprint Nextel Corp. Vonage earlier this month also settled with AT&T Inc. over infringement claims.

AT&T Inc. www.att.com
Sprint Nextel Corp. www.sprint.com
Verizon Communications Inc. www.verizon.com
Vonage Holdings Corp. www.vonage.com

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