Vonage Takes a Lickin', Barely Manages to Stay Tickin'

It's a really bad time to be Vonage. As if being smacked around in court by Verizon wasn't enough, the legal woes were compounded when a similar patent infringement suit from Sprint came down in favor of the large wireless carrier. Vonage tried to move quickly past it by agreeing to settle for a cool $80M that settles past infringement and buys them a license. That's gonna hurt, especially since Vonage lost their appeal against Verizon and will have to cough up another $40M in that action. All of this "we patent teh internets" craziness highlights the pressing need for patent reform to restore competition to the technology sector.