Vonage and Sprint settle patent dispute for $80m

In September 2007 a federal jury in Kansas City, Kansas, found that Vonage infringed on six Sprint patents, and ordered Vonage to pay over $69 million in damages plus 5% of future revenues.

Of the $80m payout, $35m covers past use of the patents, $40m is for a fully paid licence for future use of Sprint's IP, and $5m is for prepayment of services.

Vonage will also gain full access to Sprint's voice over packet patent portfolio under the terms of the settlement. Sprint claims that its VOP portfolio contains over 100 patents covering various aspects of connecting telephone calls between traditional networks and the Internet.

The two companies have stated that the settlement resolves all claims in the dispute.

For Vonage, it was another multi-million dollar loss in court. In March 2007 another jury awarded Verizon Communications $58m in damages, plus a percentage of royalties on future revenues, for infringing on three Verizon patents.