Cisco Ordered To Pay $1.9 Billion In Patent Infringement Suit

The judge found that Cisco Systems’ infringement of Centripetal Networks’ patents was ‘willful and egregious,’ causing him to increase the $755.8 million he said Cisco owed the startup by 2.5 times.

Cisco Systems has been ordered to pay $1.9 billion for infringing on four patents belonging to cybersecurity startup Centripetal Networks in a ruling made Monday.

The decision was made by District Judge Henry Coke Morgan in a non-jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where Centripetal Networks had accused Cisco of patent infringement in a lawsuit that was filed in February 2018.

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San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco vowed to appeal.

“We are disappointed with the trial court’s decision given the substantial evidence of non-infringement, invalidity and that Cisco’s innovations predate the patents by many years,” a Cisco spokesperson said in a statement to CRN. “We look forward to the Federal Circuit’s review on appeal.”

In its lawsuit, cybersecurity solutions provider Centripetal Networks, which is based in Herndon, Va., alleged that Cisco had incorporated the startup’s network protection technology into its own products within a year of having presented to the networking giant, according to Bloomberg.

The judge found that Cisco’s infringement of Centripetal Networks’ patents was “willful and egregious,” causing him to increase the $755.8 million he said Cisco owed the startup by 2.5 times. Cisco must also pay Centripetal Networks a 10 percent royalty on some of its products over the next five years, with that percentage dropping to 5 percent for the subsequent three years.