On Friday, VoIP pioneer Vonage said it has settled a patent dispute with telecom giant AT&T, which had sued Vonage in October for using packed-based telephony products based on its intellectual property.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. However, on November 7 the companies said they had tentatively agreed to a settlement in which Vonage would pay AT&T about $39 million.

Since the company went public in May 2006, Vonage has been the subject of several patent suits from telecoms and other service providers. Both Sprint Nextel and Verizon targeted Vonage for patent infringement, and both companies won judgments against the young VoIP provider.

Battle with Sprint

Most recently, a federal court ordered Vonage to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in damages for six counts of patent infringement. The ruling cost Vonage a third of its market value, although the stock has since seen gains.

Sprint Nextel claimed Vonage infringed on seven of its patents for connecting

World Wide Web phone calls. Vonage argued that Sprint’s patents should not have been approved in the first place. However, in September, jurors in a Kansas City court decided Vonage intentionally violated Sprint’s intellectual property.

U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum had the option to triple the damages considering of the finding of willful infringement. In the final ruling, a federal court ordered the company to pay $69.5 million in damages, plus future royalties.

Under the terms of the agreement, Vonage is paying Sprint Nextel a total of $80 million. That includes $35 million for past use of its technology, $40 million for a license going forward, and $5 million in prepaid services.

Battle with Verizon

The suit that opened up the floodgates against Vonage was Verizon’s legal bid against it. In June 2006, Verizon sued Vonage in Richmond, Virginia’s U.S. District Court, claiming that Vonage’s methods for interfacing amoung packet-switched…

Orginal post by Top Tech News