The Verizon patents, filed in 1997, cover the translation of domain names and IP addresses to telephone numbers when Internet calls are passed off to the traditional telephone system. Vonage claims the solution was obvious to those skilled in the art and that the Patent and Trademark Office should have never issued the patents to Verizon.

Geez, I would sure think so - how hard could it be?  And yet they still lost. Interesting. Have the new obviousness tests taken affect yet? If not, then all the more reason for DM to move forward, no?

Does anyone understand in the context of new patent laws/decisions... when they would begin to affect us? If DM files before a new law is passed, are we effectively grand-fathered in under the old laws/tests? What about new decisions (like Teleflex)? Do they become relevant immediately as current precedent as DM argues our case?

Some of these things seem like a moving target but there has to be a clear cut-off somehow - otherwise decisions could be overturned after the fact.

- Sinkman