Vonage Settles Patent Dispute with Nortel

Vonage Holdings Corp., a U.S.-based provider of broadband telephone services, recently announced it has settled its patent dispute with Nortel Networks, a Canada-based communications technology provider. The dispute originated from a lawsuit filed by Digital Packet Licensing Inc. (“DPL”) against Nortel in 2004, which claimed an infringement of patents relating to “911” and “411” telephone numbers, as well as to click-to-call technology. Vonage, however, purchased DPL and became subject to a related counterclaim by Nortel in 2007. The two companies agreed to settle pursuant to a limited cross-licence involving three of Nortel’s patents and three of Vonage’s patents, without any payment of damages. This settlement follows settlements with AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel in 2007.

This entry first appeared in the January 24, 2008 edition of lawsof.com. For additional information, click here.