Good Morning Silicon Valley

Ever since Internet phone company Vonage was found to have infringed on some key Verizon patents last month, its execs have been reassuring current and potential customers that should the worst happen, the company would have technical workarounds in place that would avoid the patent issues while allowing users to continue to connect to land-line phones (see “How do you call 911 on this thing again?“).

Well, the worst is on the verge of happening, and Vonage has come clean in a court filing: There is no workaround, and it may be impossible to create one. “Vonage currently has no workarounds that moot the need for a stay,” the company said in reference to its attempt to stave off an order that would prevent it from adding new customers until the patent mess is fixed (see “Vonage avoids death penalty, gets life without food instead“). “While Vonage has studied methods for designing around the patents, removal of the allegedly infringing technology, if even feasible, could take many months to fully study and implement.” The filing went on to say that even if Vonage “was somehow able to implement a design around, and was able to ultimately prevail on appeal, it would have no hope of regaining its lost customers, or its lost goodwill, and its loss of revenue would be permanent and …” No, the sentence didn’t trail off into sullen silence — its conclusion, as well as other bits of the filing were redacted as “confidential material.” But if you were to take a stab at filling in that blank with a five-letter word, “fatal” would fit.