Vonage Holdings Corp., the second-largest Internet phone-service provider, resolved a patent dispute with Nortel Networks Corp. that threatened to shut down some of Vonage’s calling features.
The companies will each license three patents to the other, Nortel spokesman Mohammed Nakhooda said in a statement late last month. They’ll drop claims of past damages, and dismiss those related to other patents, Vonage and Nortel said. Vonage shares rose the most since October.
The agreement leaves Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage with one major patent dispute left to fight. Vonage settled at least four other patent suits this year, including claims by the three largest U.S. phone companies.
Vonage sued Toronto-based Nortel’s U.S. unit in August, in a federal court in Wilmington, Del., seeking to invalidate three patents it said should never have been issued.
In response, Nortel claimed that Vonage had infringed on those patents, plus nine others.
Nortel sought an order blocking Vonage’s use of technology for directory assistance and emergency calls, as well as for a feature that lets customers call numbers saved on their computers, Nakhooda said earlier last month. •
