Vonage's first patent lawsuit loss came back in March and was something of a stunner. Verizon Communications had sued the VoIP juggernaut over alleged infringement on seven patents, and though only three of them were found to have been infringed upon, the die was cast for a year in which Vonage also was sued by and settle with Sprint and AT&T.
Some observers thought the lawsuits and settlements, coming at a time when the pure-play VoIP business model seemed more vulnerable than ever, could spell real doom for Vonage. Yet, so far, the company has responded with ongoing growth in its subscriber base. Generally speaking, the evolution of VoIP was a big story this year as Sunrocket sputtered and Skype saw a major service outage as well as an earnings charge for its owner eBay.
For more:
- Wait, Vonage got sued yet again. Read this breaking story in Light Reading
- Vonage has to pay Verizon alone $117.5 million