Telecoms giant Verizon won a US court ruling this month which said that Vonage had violated some of its US patents. The court granted Verizon an injunction against Vonage signing new customers because of the patent violation ruling.
Vonage argued that the bar on its signing new customers would endanger the entire company because of the high numbers of customers leaving and joining VoIP networks. It won a temporary stay on the injunction but has now won a permanent stay.
"It's business as usual for us," said Vonage chief executive Jeffrey Citron. "We remain focused on growing and strengthening our business and driving toward profitability."
Vonage is appealing against the decision, which could see it paying licence fees on its technology or even being barred from using it altogether if it does not win the appeal.
"We continue to believe we have not infringed on any of Verizon's technology and remain optimistic that we will ultimately prevail in this litigation," said Citron.
When the original adjudication was announced in March, Vonage said that it would find a technical workaround in order to keep its service operating without using the patents in dispute. Last week, though, the company admitted that it had no such workaround and could not operate its business without using the patents.
Vonage was found to have infringed three Verizon patents on technology which connected its network to the main telephone network. It was ordered to pay $58 million in damages and to pay a 5.5% licence fee on revenues from the technology.
Verizon had claimed violation of seven patents and $197 million in damages, but the court found that Vonage's infringement was not wilful, which carries with it a tripling of damages penalties.
Vonage has had a turbulent time since it floated on the stock market last year. Its chief executive, Michael Snyder, left the company two weeks ago and founder Jeffrey Citron took over.
