Jury Awards Sprint Nextel $69.5 Million Plus Royalties in Infringement Lawsuit Against Vonage
A jury verdict announced yesterday in the patent infringement dispute between Sprint Nextel and Vonage in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, found that Vonage infringes all six of Sprint Nextel’s voice-over-packet patents at issue in the case. The jury awarded Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in past damages and a five percent royalty on future revenue.
“We are extremely pleased with the verdict as it underscores the strength of our voice-over-packet portfolio and reinforces the importance of the innovations developed by our employees,” said Harley Ball, Sprint’s vice president of intellectual property. “The inventions developed by the late Joseph Christie and other Sprint employees are critical to voice over packet telephony and we view the verdict as validation of the depth of our patent portfolio.”
Sprint’s voice-over-packet portfolio comprises more than 100 patents covering different methods, components and systems that efficiently connect telephone calls between a regular telephone network and a packet-switched network such as the Internet.
About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks serving 54 million customers at the end of the second quarter 2007; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
