Digital phone service Vonage said Friday it has settled a
patent dispute with At&T.
AT&T sued Vonage on October 17, accusing it of using
packet-based telephony products, which allows voice conversation to be carried
over the Internet, based on products that use technology covered by AT&T
patents. A breakdown in talks between the two companies over the problem led to
the lawsuit, said AT&T at the time.
On November 7, the two companies claimed they had
tentatively agreed to a settlement with Vonage saying it would pay AT&T around
$39 million under the terms of the settlement.
Final terms of the agreement were not disclosed on Friday,
when Vonage said, in a brief statement, the dispute had been settled.
Vonage is not at its first settlement like this. The company
previously agreed to pay Sprint Nextel $80 million for infringement on voice
over packet technology after a lawsuit filed in October 2005. The term of the
settlement also included Vonage’s agreement to license Sprint’s technology.
On the same month, Vonage also agreed to settle with Verizon
Communications after the company was sued for patent infringement, with the
settlement costs falling between $80 million and $120 million, depending on
appeal results regarding two patents.
At the beginning of December, Vonage was struck with another patent infringement lawsuit from Nortel Networks, a telecommunications equipment manufacturer, which said that Vonage violated nine patents related to Nortel’s Internet Phone service.