Vonage pays cash to settle patent suit with Sprint

The beaten down shares of Vonage Holdings more than doubled in value after the Internet phone company said it had settled a patent suit filed by Sprint Nextel, an Associated Press report said.

The shares gained $1.42 to close at $2.57, the Associated Press report said.

On September 25, a jury in the US District Court in Kansas City, Kan., found that Vonage infringed on six Sprint patents, and ordered Vonage to pay $69.5 million in damages, the Associated Press report said.

The settlement resolves all claims in that suit for $80 million, the companies said.

Sprint also agreed to license Vonage its portfolio of more than 100 patents on connecting calls between a regular telephone network and a packet-switched network such as the Internet, the report said.

The settlement does not put all of Vonage's legal troubles behind it, the report said.

In March, another jury awarded Verizon Communications $58 million in damages, plus 5.5% royalties on future revenues after finding that Vonage violated three Verizon patents, the report further said.

Litigation continues in that suit. Vonage denies infringement and says it has deployed workarounds for two of the patented technologies, according to the report.