Judge bans Vonage from adding new customers

by Brad Linder Apr 6th 2007

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton has ordered internet telephony provider Vonage to stop signing up new customers as long as it continues to use technology which infringes on patents held by Verizon.

Last month a federal jury found that Vonage was violating Verizon's patents. Judge Hilton says his order will minimize harm to both companies, but a lawyer for Vonage say the company plans to appeal.

Vonage has about 2.2 million subscribers right now, but has a turnover rate of about 2.5% each month. If the company cannot add new subscribers, it could lose quite a bit of money. Current customers should not experience any service interruptions.

Update: Vonage has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. for a permanent stay on the ruling banning the company from signing up new customers. And while that case is pending, the court has temporarily stayed the order.

[via Techdirt]

Tags: lawsuit, verizon, vonage

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters