Vonage Files for Rehearing En Banc of Verizon Decision

Late this afternoon, VoIP services provider Vonage announced it had filed a motion for the entire three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to review its own decision two weeks ago upholding Verizon's infringement claims on two of three contested patents.

If the motion is granted, Vonage may be permitted to re-argue its appeal before all three judges en banc rather than just one judge individually.

But it's banking on a "triple-or-nothing" bet: that the other two appellate judges would countermand one judge's decision to remand one claim for a lower court to retry, and to uphold Verizon's other two victories.

Last March, a federal jury awarded Verizon $58 million plus 5.5% of Vonage's future royalties, in a case that originally centered on as many as seven Verizon patents. With a partial remand having been ordered, that damage award currently has to be recalculated.

But in a worst-case scenario, the two other judges could disagree in the other direction, potentially reinstating the $197 million verdict Verizon originally requested from the lower court. However, an oddsmaker might conclude the more probable outcome to be a denial of Vonage's rehearing motion, in which case the partial remand would stand.