Cisco prevails in reversing $74m patent decision

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that Cisco did not infringe licensing company Commil USA’s patent in a $74 million dispute.

The decision, issued on December 28, follows a remand from the US Supreme Court, which last May ruled that a “defendant’s belief regarding patent invalidity” is not a defence against a claim of induced infringement.

Commil filed a claim in 2007 and prevailed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in securing a $63.7 million award. A jury at the court ruled that Cisco was liable for both direct and indirect infringement of US patent number 6,430,395.

The district court later awarded Commil an additional $10 million in interest.

Patent ‘395 covers a more efficient system of transferring the wireless connection of a mobile phone to a new base station as it moves into another networking area.

The dispute covered Cisco’s manufacturing and distribution of networking equipment which Commil had claimed induced customers to infringe the patent, as well directly infringing the patent in question.

Previously, after Cisco appealed against the ruling, the federal circuit remanded the case back to the district court stating that Cisco could assert that it held a “good-faith belief” that the patent was invalid.

But the three-judge panel at the federal circuit declined to rule on whether Cisco had infringed the ‘395 patent.

Commil appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that the good-faith belief was not a valid argument.

The Supreme Court agreed.

But writing the final decision for the federal circuit, Chief Judge Sharon Prost said that because the court did not agree with Commil’s claim of both direct and induced infringement, the district court’s decision must be reversed.