Federal Circuit affirms USITC ban on Arista network switches
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a decision by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) which banned technology company Arista from importing products using three patents relating to network devices.
The ITC began an investigation into Arista in January 2015, after a complaint was lodged by Cisco claiming that Arista’s network switches infringed six of its patents.
In the complaint, Cisco stated Arista had infringed US patent numbers 7,162,537; 8,356,296; 7,290,164; 7,340,597; 6,741,592; and 7,200,145 in its network switches, which are typically employed in computer data centres.
In February 2016, an administrative law judge (ALJ) found Arista had infringed three of the patents (‘537 ‘592 and ‘145), found no infringement of a further two (‘597 and ‘164), while the other one had been previously terminated from the investigation.
Four months later, the ITC issued a final determination which backed the ALJ’s verdict, leading both parties to appeal to the Federal Circuit.
Yesterday, October 18, a three-judge panel at the Federal Circuit found that the ITC had made the correct decision and affirmed it in full.
“Blocking imports of articles that induce patent infringement has a reasonable relationship to stopping unlawful trade acts,” the ruling read when referring to the trade ban or Arista’s products.
“Accordingly, we see no error in the commission’s limited exclusion order,” it added.
Cisco appealed against the earlier finding of non-infringement of the ‘597 patent, but not the ‘164 patent.
However, the Federal Circuit backed a finding of non-infringement of the ‘597 patent.
The patent describes a “logging module that detects and communicates information regarding a change to a configuration of a subsystem”.
“Where, like here, there is ‘such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion’, we affirm the commission’s non-infringement determination,” the verdict read.
Therefore, the commission’s verdict was affirmed with no costs.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox
Today’s top stories:
Federal Circuit sticks to Alice in Chicago transport row
Maiwald expands IP advisory practice with new partner
Germany’s Supreme Court cancels decisions that blocked 3D chocolate marks
