Centripetal bounces back with $151.5m victory in cyber security patent feud
Win follows recent setback in record-breaking case against Cisco | Dispute concerned tech that combats the rapid growth of cyber threats.
Cybersecurity firm Centripetal Networks has been handed $151.5 million in damages by a US jury, after it ruled that rival Palo Alto Networks (PAN) had infringed four patents.
The jury delivered the decision at the US District Court for the Eastern District Court of Virginia on Wednesday, January 31, in favour of the Virginia-based company.
The dispute arose in March 2021, when Centripetal sued California-based PAN alleging infringement of certain cybersecurity patents directed to improvements in how computers analyse network packets and filter these packets to circumvent network threats.
It accused PAN of violating the rights to Centripetal’s flagship technologies with the introduction of its NGFW, Panorama, Cortex, MineMeld services.
A pioneer in the field
Centripetal’s complaint held that it was the first in the field to develop and invent specialised core networking technologies to combat the rapid growth in both the number and sophistication of cyber threats.
Centripetal, it added, had gone on to become the forerunner in developing cybersecurity technologies capable of protecting organisations from these advanced threats.
This was because its technologies were able to extrapolate intelligence feeds and apply advanced filtering to prevent unwanted traffic from hitting an organisation’s network, said the filing.
Today, Centripetal claims to maintain the world’s “largest threat intelligence partner ecosystem” to provide “community based solutions to defeat sophisticated cyberattacks”.
Palo Alto's response
In a statement to WIPR, a Palo Alto spokesperson said: “We respectfully disagree with the jury’s decision, which we believe is contrary to both the law and the extensive evidence we presented at trial. We plan to pursue relief from the court.”
Centripetal’s victory follows a recent setback in December 2023 when Cisco defeated a record $2.75bn patent ruling for Centripetal Networks in Virginia, after five years of litigation.
Judge Henry Morgan awarded Centripetal $1.9 billion in damages, plus royalties, bringing the total to more than $2.7 billion—the largest patent damages award in US history at the time.
But the US Court of Appeals then overturned that award on ethical grounds when it emerged that Judge Morgan’s wife owned Cisco stock.
Paul Andre, partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel represented Centripetal, while Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, partner at Ropes & Gray, represented PAN.
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