the biggie, gone
Finjan, Cisco Will Drop IP Fight Before COVID-Delayed Trial
By Tiffany Hu
Law360 (May 27, 2021, 8:02 PM EDT) -- Finjan and Cisco have agreed to drop a patent fight in California federal court over anti-malware systems, days before a much-delayed trial was scheduled to take place.
The companies' stipulation of dismissal, filed Wednesday, seeks to end Finjan's lawsuit against Cisco, which was accused of infringing five Finjan patents that cover ways to protect computers from malicious software and viruses when connected to the internet.
The case was originally set for trial in June 2020 before being postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic to Oct. 19. It was then delayed to Nov. 2, and then to Jan. 11, before being postponed again to next week.
The stipulation doesn't offer an explanation but states that the companies "have resolved their dispute in the captioned case and accordingly stipulate to dismissal with prejudice."
Representatives for the companies did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
According to Finjan's lawsuit, Cisco's infringement began when it acquired technology from a company called Sourcefire Inc. and then refused to enter a licensing agreement with Finjan.
Cisco had denied the allegations and sought to invalidate at least some of the patents-in-suit.
In April 2020, Judge Freeman told the attorneys to prepare for a June 15, 2020, trial. At the time, the judge said she was "fairly confident" that Finjan's patent infringement suit could go before a jury in June and July, with social distancing restrictions in place.
But the Northern District of California's top judge issued an order in May 2020 postponing or vacating all new civil jury trials scheduled to commence through Sept. 30, citing the continued disruptions to the judicial system caused by the pandemic.
During a status conference last May, Judge Freeman pushed the start of the trial to Oct. 19, saying that she had "high hopes" it would be the first civil jury trial in the district but that the court's "enormous backlog" of criminal cases would take priority.
The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,844, 6,804,780, 7,647,633, 8,141,154 and 8,677,494.
Finjan is represented by Juanita Brooks, Roger Denning, Frank J. Albert, Megan A. Chacon, K. Nicole Williams, Oliver J. Richards, Jared A. Smith, Tucker N. Terhufen and Aamir Kazi of Fish & Richardson PC.
Cisco is represented by D. Stuart Bartow, Joseph A. Powers, Jarrad M. Gunther, L. Norwood Jameson, Matthew C. Gaudet, David C. Dotson, John R. Gibson, Jennifer H. Forté and Alice E. Snedeker of Duane Morris LLP.
The case is Finjan LLC v. Cisco Systems Inc., case number 5:17-cv-00072, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
--Additional reporting by Lauren Berg and Craig Clough. Editing by Rich Mills.
