XpertUniverse, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco has brought a declaratory judgment (DJ) action (1:17-cv-01204) against XpertUniverse, Inc. (f/k/a Homework911.com), less than two months after the NPE revived its apparently dormant litigation campaign with a second affirmative suit against the company (3:17-cv-03848) in early July. The DJ complaint alleges that XpertUniverse misled Cisco by waiting nearly four years after its appeal from the first case concluded to file its July lawsuit, leading Cisco to develop new versions of its accused Remote Expert product due to the “reasonable infer[ence]” that the NPE did not intend to bring additional litigation. As such, Cisco pleads, XpertUniverse should be equitably estopped from bringing further claims. Cisco also seeks a judgment that versions of Remote Expert released since the first case ended do not infringe.

XpertUniverse, Inc. (f/k/a Homework911.com) has filed a second suit against Cisco (3:17-cv-03848), a couple of years after the appeal from the first one concluded. A single patent (7,499,903) is asserted in the new complaint, which targets Cisco’s Remote Expert products. The ‘903 patent generally relates to locating a “live expert” within an organization to answer an incoming inquiry. In March 2013, a Delaware jury returned a verdict in XpertUniverse’s favor on infringement of the ‘903 patent (and a second patent at issue in the first case) by Cisco’s earlier expert location products; the new case has been filed in the Northern District of California.