Cisco slapped with $1.9 billion judgement in safety patent lawsuit

Cisco this week misplaced a patent infringement case introduced by safety vendor Centripetal Networks and was hit with a $1.9 billion judgement.

A non-jury judgement from U.S. District Decide Henry Morgan decided Cisco infringed on 4 safety patents associated to encrypted visitors and packet filtering know-how belonging to plaintiff Centripetal Networks. The award directs $755.eight million in precise damages, multiplied by 2.5 to mirror “willful and egregious” conduct from Cisco, the decide discovered. 

The award additionally consists of previous damages and a operating royalty of 10% on the apportioned gross sales of the patented merchandise for a interval of three years, adopted by a second three-year time period with a operating royalty of 5% on such gross sales, which might take damages from the case north of $three billion, based on a Centripetal assertion concerning the case.

“…Cisco didn’t advance any objectively affordable defenses at trial as to the 4 infringed and legitimate patents,” Morgan wrote. The case was “not an in depth name,” the decide acknowledged.

In response to a Bloomberg story concerning the case, Centripetal Networks mentioned it developed a community safety system, funded partially by a grant from the Division of Homeland Safety, solely to see Cisco combine the innovations into its personal networks after conferences and displays by Centripetal officers in 2017.

“The infringing performance was added to their accused merchandise publish June 20, 2017, and resulted in a dramatic enhance in gross sales which Cisco touted in each technical and advertising paperwork,” the judgement acknowledged.

“The truth that Cisco launched merchandise with Centripetal’s performance inside a 12 months of those conferences goes past mere coincidence.”

For its half, Cisco mentioned the litigated options had been developed nicely earlier than the time interval referred to within the case, and that it will attraction the ruling.  

“We’re dissatisfied with the trial court docket’s determination given the substantial proof of non-infringement, invalidity and that Cisco’s improvements predate the patents by a few years. We look ahead to the Federal Circuit’s assessment on attraction,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.