In October 2005, Sprint Nextel filed a suit against Vonage and two other VoIP providers claiming the companies violated seven patents on technology for processing and delivering packetized voice and data, including VoIP and was expected to go to trial this September. A jury in the US District Court in Kansas City, found that Vonage had infringed six Sprint patents and awarded Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in past damages and a five percent royalty on future revenue. Vonage shares fell 66 cents, or 34 percent, to $1.30 at 4:32 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Trading was halted for almost two hours immediately after the verdict. Now Sprint Nextel and Vonage has announced that they have settled their ongoing patent dispute and entered into a licensing arrangement under Sprint's Voice over Packet ('VOP') patent portfolio. The settlement agreement resolves all claims related to this dispute. In addition, Sprint has agreed to license Vonage its VOP portfolio, which comprises more than 100 patents covering different methods, components and systems that efficiently connect telephone calls between a regular telephone network and a packet-switched network such as the Internet. The case has been settled for around USD 80 million and it helped Vonage gain some respect back at the stock market.
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