Are the Verizon patents actually valid?

Thought we might get away without more Vonage news for at least one issue? Me too. Guess again. Here's an analyst who says that the Verizon patents that Vonage was convicted of infringing upon may themselves be invalid. Dan Berniger suggests that the advances that Verizon patented had been widely discussed before Verizon filed. That's prior art, and would be grounds for rejecting the patents. The trial judge didn't want to hear testimony about the validity of patents; you'll remember that the trial was very fast for a patent trial. Fighting to invalidate the patents would take time and money, two things that Vonage is a little short on.

For more about possible prior art on Verizon's VoIP patents:
- read this article from Techdirt
- check out the article from Computerworld

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