Vonage's webpage appears to be still allowing people to sign up.

The problem is that "open-standard, off-the-shelf technology" doesn't protect you from being sued for patent infringement. Whether you developed the "open-standard, off-the-shelf technology", or simply use it, doesn't matter, either. We've seen more than enough lawsuits where the end-users of a product are sued for patent infringement, as opposed to going after the real infringers.

But if you think that using "open-standard, off-the-shelf technology" is any protection, just ask the various RAM companies who were sued by RAMBUS. Even an open standard can be blocked / blackmailed / sunk by patents.

using RAMBUS as an example was a very very bad comparison, just pick up any recent copy of the esteemed "Where are they now?" flick and you'll see RAMBUS in the back ground getting its balls ripped off repeated by the court system for abuse of open standards....

RAMBUS wasnt the best choice to compare to this case, if you look at the RAMBUS saga, in the end RAMBUS got their heads handed to them by the courts, and if they''re lucky they might survive, maybe... as i have a feeling Verizon will here in the end as well...