Vonage requests retrial in Verizon lawsuit

Vonage hasn't been faring well in the courts, with their only real success being getting an injunction against them stayed. Verizon has been pursuing them ruthlessly for a while over various patents, many of which are crucial to a VoIP company like Vonage. There is a glimmer of hope for them, however, with their request for a retrial. According to them, the technology these patents encompasses is too obvious to be patented, not being unique enough that it couldn't be done many times by many people. Their analogy leaves something to be desired, but works well enough:

"According to the Supreme Court's ruling, if you patent an orange picker, and then someone else comes along and puts a glove on it to protect the oranges against bruising, you can't patent this new invention as 'novel' as it is just an obvious improvement of the original invention," Vonage chief legal officer Sharon O'Leary said in a statement. "The Supreme Court's decision thus focuses on keeping only what's truly novel and original protected by patents."
They are asserting that earlier tests to prove the patents were obvious were too strict, and want them redone. Will they get their way? For their sake, they'd better, because they are quickly running out of options.