26 September 2007

A federal jury on Tuesday ordered Vonage Holdings to pay Sprint Nextel
$69.5 million in damages for violating six of its patents, prompting
analysts to question whether the troubled Internet-phone company could
survive.

Vonage, which lost another major patent case earlier
this year, said it will appeal the decision that sent its shares
plummeting 33 percent.

Vonage
must also pay Sprint a 5-percent royalty on future revenue, the jury
decided after the three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Kansas.
Reston, Va.-based Sprint said it plans to ask the court to permanently
ban Vonage from using its patented technology, and District Judge John
Lungstrum can triple the damage award if he agrees with the jury's
decision that Vonage deliberately infringed the patents.