Veriaon sues Vonage for patent infringement and their stock tanks yet again!

Verizon Communications has filed a patent infringement case against Vonage and as a result their stock has tanked yet again and is now fifty percent below where they IPO'd!

In the lawsuit, Verizon Services Corp and Verizon Laboratories allege that Vonage infringed on seven patents related to voice over Internet protocol, the technology that powers Internet calling. Sprint Nextel filed a similar lawsuit last fall against Vonage and two smaller Internet phone providers.

Verizon said it has patented technology to help route calls from the Internet to traditional telephone networks and enable billing and fraud detection for VOIP networks. The phone giant says it also has developed novel ways to integrate popular phone features such as voicemail and caller ID into Internet calling.

Poor old Vonage they just can't catch a break. More worrying may not be the outcome of the lawsuit, which they plan to vigorously defend, but the endless bad luck and stock market thrashing they have received since going public just a few weeks ago.

I'm no longer sure they will ever fully recover and their ability to remain independent must come into question yet again.