From MSN Money... link to story

Vonage hit by court setback
Internet-phone company Vonage (VG, news, msgs) received some static Tuesday afternoon when a federal jury in Kansas City, Kan., ordered the company to pay nearly $70 million in damages to SprintNextel (S, news, msgs) for infringing on a patent. In 2005, Sprint sued Vonage for infringing on seven patents used to connect Internet phone calls.

"We are disappointed that the jury did not recognize that our technology differs from that of Sprint's patents," Vonage Chief Legal Officer Sharon O'Leary said in a statement. Vonage said it would appeal the decision.

Vonage was also ordered to pay a 5% royalty to Sprint on future sales.

This was the latest setback for Vonage, which had to pay Verizon (VZ, news, msgs) $58 million in damages and 5.5% of royalties for infringing on one of its patents back in March.

Shares of Vonage have plunged 89% since the company went public in May 2006, as of Tuesday's closing price. Shares of the stock were up 7 cents to $1.37 in pre-market trading today.

Do you think Vonage will be able to rebound after this?

Nope...

And they've got a ton of BBB complaints because their customer service reps don't actually process cancellations. I've had the box disconnected since February, my wife didn't get around to calling for cancellation (M-F/9-5) until July, and I'm still billed on the MC Check Card.

Please keep post professional and to the facts.

Post was completely off topic.

Please keep post professional and on the topic at hand.

I have a Vonage line at home. Works great and a good deal, so I hope they can pull out.

I use them as well. Other than equipment problems, I've had great service.

My main worry with this is whether or not I can port away my vonage-issued number if I have to change providers.

I know that portability is required, but I think I read somewhere that it doesn't apply here.

Time Warner wasn't able to port our vonage number.

Ive heard porting a vonage number can be problematic which is one reason why its not a good choice for a business