Prior Art On Verizon’s VoIP Patents

Berninger says that the ideas were discussed at the VoIP forum meeting in 1996 and published in January of 1997. The patents in question were filed after that. I’ve included Berninger’s note after the jump. However, due to the fun way the patent system works, introducing that kind of prior art to the USPTO for it to review the validity of Verizon’s VoIP patents will take quite a bit of time and effort — much longer than Vonage has to fight Verizon in court.

This lawsuit is becoming more difficult to understand everyday. VOIP uses open standards, but Verizon claims these methods are in their patents. Vonage is in a very bad position, regardless of whether or not they are actually infringing on any patents at all.

Source: Tech Dirt