Verizon Sues Cox for IP Patent Infringement

Verizon Communications Inc. is suing Cox Communications for infringing on eight of its Internet Protocol-related patents.

Verizon filed the case Jan. 11 in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, the same court that’s handling Level 3 Communications Inc.’s patent infringement suit against Limelight Networks.

Of the eight patents, four are the ones that, in 2006, Verizon accused Vonage Holdings Corp. of illegally using. Last March, a jury decided Vonage was willfully infringing on two of those pieces of intellectual property. Vonage ended up paying $120 million in settlement costs; it also pays Verizon 5.5 percent in royalties on revenue.

Now Verizon is going after Cox, which has more than 2.1 million IP telephony customers.

Verizon wouldn’t talk about the case on the record, and a Cox spokesman said the company does not discuss pending litigation.

Telecom insiders speaking on background speculated that Verizon is pursuing Cox now that there’s a precedent for success. Vonage was found to be infringing on Verizon’s “enhanced Internet domain name server” and “Method, server and telecommunications system for name translation on a conditional basis and/or to a telephone number” patents. Those two counts – and two that Vonage was found not have infringed upon – are included in the Cox suit.

Insiders also noted that Verizon, along with AT&T Inc., is losing business to cable companies. Remember, Verizon didn’t sue Vonage until the New Jersey-based company had signed a large number of subscribers and started posing a competitive threat to the rest of the VoIP industry.

In its court filing, Verizon asked for a jury trial. It also asked that Cox be stopped from using the patents in an unauthorized manner, and that Cox pay royalties and treble damages, as well as all legal costs.

The patents Verizon says Cox is infringing upon:

U.S. Patent No. 6,970,930 (not in Vonage case)
U.S. Patent No. 6,104, 711 (Vonage was found to have infringed)
U.S. Patent No. 6,430,275 (Vonage found not to have infringed)
U.S. Patent No. 6,137,869 (Vonage found not to have infringed)
U.S. Patent No. 6,282,574 (Vonage was found to have infringed)
U.S. Patent No. 6,335,927 (not in Vonage case)
U.S. Patent No. 6,292,481 (not in Vonage case)
U.S. Patent No. 6,636,597 (not in Vonage case)

AT&T Inc. www.att.com
Cox Communications www.cox.com
Level 3 Communications Inc. wwww.level3.com
Limelight Networks www.limelightnetworks.om
Verizon Communications Inc. www.verizon.com
Vonage Holdings Corp. www.vonage.com