Vonage has acknowledged it has no workaround for technology that was found to infringe Verizon Communications patents and does not know if one is feasible. Vonage has said it was developing workarounds, or other ways of accomplishing the same tasks, to steer clear of the technology that it has been found to be infringing. The company is still working on those techniques, said spokeswoman Brooke Schulz. "While Vonage has been considering design-around options, it does not have a design that can be implemented immediately, if such a design around is even feasible. In fact, current design-around options contemplated could take many months," said an April 6 filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
On March 23, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia announced an injunction preventing Vonage from signing up new customers. The appeals court granted Vonage a temporary stay the same day. Vonage argues that a permanent injunction would cause irreparable harm to its business. "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," the filing said. To make matters worse for Vonage, CEO Michael Snyder left the company last week and founder and Chairman Jeffrey Citron became interim CEO.