About a month ago – after a Federal court issued an injunction which prevented Vonage from signing up new customers during their appeals process – there were those in the media who were predicting the impending death of Vonage. Well now after an Appeals court granted Vonage’s grant for an extended stay, it appears that they are not dead yet.
First let me point out that every individual or entity has the right to protect his or her IP. Now let’s assume for the sake of argument that Verizon is accurate in their claims. I find it hard to be sympathetic for a company that is (A) not able to successfully market the technology that they develop, (B) not actually interested in marketing a potentially less expensive technology to its consumers because it cannibalizes an existing cash cow, or (C) its organization is so terribly slow to react to market forces that they could not successfully introduce the technology that they developed before a competitor beat them to the punch. It will be interesting to see how this appeal ultimately plays out.
Random Hitz 
I wish they would hurry up and die. I was with Vonage for a while (about 10 months) and had a fair share of issues with connection quality, etc. When I finally made the move to via:talk they charged me a $40 disconnect fee! Unreal.
That said, Via:Talk is so much better. $199 gets me 2 full years of service with much better call quality and a TON of awesome features.
While I am not a current user of Vonage, I have friends who are and quite frankly have not been impressed with the sound quality especially in inclimate weather. I do find this case very interesting though.
On a seperate note, I will give ViaTalk a look when I add my next line. Thanks for the suggestion.