More troubles for voice over IP provider Vonage, as U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton issued an injunction today preventing the company from accepting any new customers, due to the company's infringing on patents held by Verizon Communications Inc. Vonage was barred from adding any subscribers to its current base of more than 2.2 million customers, so long as the company continues using technology covered under the patent infringement suit.

In March, a Virginia jury concluded that Vonage infringed on three patents held by Verizon, and awarded Verizon $58 million in damages, as well as future royalties of 5.5 percent on revenue obtained by Vonage through continued use of the infringed patents. Later that month, Judge Hilton went further, issuing a permanent injunction barring Vonage from further use of the technology in question.

Vonage attorney Roger Warin, protested the latest injunction stating, "It's the difference of cutting off oxygen as opposed to the bullet in the head." Vonage is planning an immediate appeal of the patent decision and the injunctions currently in place.

Vonage continues to maintain that it did not infringe on any of the Verizon patents. Although confident that the current verdict will be turned over during the appeals process, Vonage has said that even if the verdict is upheld, it is developing a technological workaround to avoid service disruption for customers.