The eight-member jury began deliberations shortly after 3 p.m. ET (2000 GMT).

After an hour, jurors sent a note to the judge asking if they could work into the night in hopes of reaching a verdict on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton responded that the jury could deliberate until 6 p.m. ET (2300 GMT) and if further time was needed, it would have to return on Thursday morning.

In closing arguments, a lawyer for Verizon told jurors that Vonage built its business based on Verizon’s patents and said Vonage should be forced to pay $197 million in damages.

Going forward, Vonage also should be ordered to pay Verizon a royalty of $4.93 per telephone line per month for the voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) technology, said Verizon lawyer Dan Webb.

“This company has done very well with our patents and our technology for a number of years,” Webb told jurors.

Verizon claims that Vonage is infringing on five patents on technologies devised by Verizon engineers in the mid-1990s that are central to Internet phone service.

The patents cover technology that allows calls made through the Internet to be connected to traditional phone numbers; that enable Internet phone service to use features such as call waiting and voicemail; to coordinate billing; and to connect through a wireless network.

Vonage insists that Verizon’s patents were invalid and were not infringed upon by the Vonage system.

Vonage’s lawyer, Roger Warin, said Verizon was using the patent infringement allegation to try to destroy Vonage and thwart competition.

“We didn’t take their (intellectual) property,” Warin said.

Warin provided for jurors what he said were differences between the technology that Vonage uses and the patents owned by Verizon.

And Verizon’s patents were invalid anyway, he said, because the technologies were invented earlier by Net2Phone, another provider of VoIP service.

If the jury finds that Vonage infringed Verizon’s patents, the judge could issue an injunction barring Vonage from using the technologies.

Vonage has said that the outcome of the case would not disrupt its business.

Vonage has struggled to turn a profit and its share price has fallen sharply since its initial public offering last May at $17. On Wednesday afternoon, Vonage edged down 17 cents to $5.05 on the New York Stock Exchange.

copyright © 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.

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