On 7 Apr 2007, at 07:02, Jay Milk wrote:
If Verizon's patent claim is indeed so broad as to prevent Vonage's
PSTN interconnect, then Verizon would still have to show that the
patent is non-obvious and a truly new invention
Sadly not - if they have a patent granted, then the onus of proof is
the other way around, Vonage
and the rest of us have to prove it is obvious or cite prior-art.
That last point could be quite a big one against VZ -- Vonage is
gaining customers not because they stole Verizon's doubtful IP, but
because they offer a better deal. In my area, Vonage is cheaper
than a Verizon dialtone alone -- and I'd still pay for each
outgoing call if I had Verizon.
That said, this is going to be interesting to watch for all us
asterisk users. If Vonage loses this one, VZ is going to go after
the next VOIP provider... and sooner or later, anti-trust
regulation will kick in.
Fun world.
If I were Vonage I'd have a delegation in HongKong now, moving all my
Telco interconnects
to somewhere where the US patent system is treated with the contempt
it is starting to earn.
Tim Panton
www.mexuar.net
www.westhawk.co.uk/
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