March 8, 2007.  It’s not good, but it could have been much, much worse. A federal jury has found that Vonage Holdings Corp. infringed on three key patents owned byVerizon ( News - Alert) Communications Inc.
 
An eight-member jury found that Vonage must pay Verizon $58 million in past damages. The jury also declared that Vonage (News - Alert) must pay a 5.5 percent royalty rate on any sales going forward.
 
While still a far cry from the $197 million in damages sought by Verizon, Vonage shareholders saw the stock price drop slip nearly 4 percent.
 
It was the belief of the jury that Vonage was guilty of patent infringement in the following areas:

    * technology used to bridge Internet calls to the traditional phone system
    * features such as call-waiting and voice-mail
    * wireless Internet phone calls.

By Greg Galitzine
Group Editorial Director
tmcnet.com