Finjan LLC v. ESET, LLC et al DC CAFC

The Federal Circuit has overturned a Southern District of California ruling that invalidated five Finjan, Inc. patents asserted against ESET as indefinite. In a November 1 precedential decision, the appellate court held that District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo erred in construing a common claim term to include a limitation present only in certain family members that had been incorporated by reference into the challenged patents. The Federal Circuit explained that while a patent incorporated by reference can provide context when construing shared language, it cannot be used to change the scope of the claimed invention in the “host” patent.

Delaware District Judge Richard G. Andrews has entered final judgment for Comcast in litigation filed by NexStep Inc., the latest in a series of setbacks suffered by the inventor-controlled plaintiff since late last year. In September, just four days before a scheduled trial, Judge Andrews threw out NexStep’s entire damages theory as based on a “rule of thumb” without sufficient linkage to the facts of the case—and later tossed an alternate, last-minute theory with a similar flaw. With no damages on the table, the trial proceeded to a liability-only verdict of infringement via the doctrine of equivalents. In May, however, Judge Andrews overturned that verdict in a post-trial order—a decision that will now proceed to the Federal Circuit along with those other rulings.

Courts tend to give patent litigants significant flexibility in crafting a damages theory, with the traditional Georgia-Pacific factors offering a variety of entry points for determining a reasonable royalty. However, as one plaintiff recently learned the hard way, a damages theory must have a sufficient connection to the relevant facts to approximate the results of a hypothetical negotiation between the parties. As recounted by RPX last week, Delaware District Judge Richard G. Andrews threw out the original damages case offered by plaintiff NexStep just before a scheduled trial earlier in the fall, ruling that a proposed 50-50 split of the cost savings with defendant Comcast was improperly based on a “rule of thumb” without sufficient linkage to the facts of the case.

Before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, District of Delaware Judge Richard G. Andrews excluded a fact-based damages theory put together by inventor-controlled NexStep Inc. on the eve of its September 2021 trial against Comcast. That damages theory was so last minute because Judge Andrews had previously stricken from NexStep’s actual damages expert report a cost-savings approach, based on the expert’s “arbitrary” opinion that Comcast would have been willing to split any purported cost savings equally with NexStep, a choice that Judge Andrews found was “without support by facts specific to these parties” and thus was based on a “fundamentally flawed premise”. This ruling—throwing out a last-ditch damages theory after an earlier cost-savings approach was rejected—might sound familiar, as it echoes the circumstances now at the center of Finjan, Inc.’s appeal of an award of roughly $6M in attorney fees in its litigation against Juniper Networks.

Two NPEs controlled by Fortress Investment Group LLC have seen unfavorable rulings in recent weeks. In late July, Finjan Holdings, Inc.—acquired by Fortress last summer—was hit with $5.9M in attorney fees due to “improper” conduct in its case against Juniper Networks. Meanwhile, a related dispute is proceeding in Delaware in the campaign waged by Fortress subsidiary VLSI Technology LLC, over arguments by Intel that its existing license with Finjan that covers Finjan “affiliates” now encompasses VLSI, as VLSI allegedly became such an affiliate when Fortress purchased Finjan. In January, Intel asserted those claims in a still-active lawsuit filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery. That same issue will now be litigated in VLSI’s Delaware District Court suit against Intel as well, following the court’s July decision to allow Intel to amend its answer to include a license defense.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. has hit another stumbling block in its infringement suit against Juniper Networks, just over six months after District Judge William Alsup ruled that the NPE’s litigation conduct had rendered the case “exceptional” under Octane. On July 26, Judge Alsup adopted the recommendation of a special master and awarded Juniper $5.9M in attorney fees, nearly all of what the defendant had originally sought. Judge Alsup also declined to impose sanctions against the plaintiff, though he emphasized that there had still been “improper conduct by Finjan and its counsel”—adding that his ruling “[i]n no way . . . vindicate[s]” the conduct of the NPE’s attorneys.

A Special Master’s report was filed last week in the case that Finjan Holdings, Inc. filed against Juniper Networks, recommending that Juniper be awarded $5.9M in attorney fees, including a relatively de minimis amount ($150K) for “fees on fees” (i.e., time spent litigating fees issues). Per that Special Master, Matthew Borden, Juniper is entitled to reimbursement of those fees, over certain Finjan objections because “[l]ike the Battle of Verdun, high-stakes patent litigation can become a costly fight over inches and yards. When engaging in such combat, each side can expect that its adversary will respond in kind”.

Northern California District Judge Beth Labson Freeman has granted a joint request to sever and stay litigation as to three of the five patents that Finjan Holdings, Inc. has accused Cisco of infringing since January 2017. The order also “terminates” without prejudice a Cisco motion for invalidity of those patents, based on the application of collateral estoppel to an order from the Southern District of California case filed by Finjan against ESET that invalidated as indefinite five of the six anti-malware patents there in suit. Finjan has sought reconsideration of that SoCal order. Meanwhile, trial between Finjan and Cisco over the two remaining patents is set to begin up north on June 4, 2021.

The second West Texas trial between VLSI Technology LLC and Intel has ended in a verdict of noninfringement for the chipmaker, capping off a closely watched proceeding before District Judge Alan D. Albright in which the plaintiff—a Fortress Investment Group LLC subsidiary—had sought damages totaling over $3B. That April 21 verdict comes just under two months after a second jury reached the opposite conclusion for another set of patents in a second case between the same parties, finding infringement and awarding $2B in damages.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. has seen a new setback in its Southern District of California lawsuit against ESET (3:17-cv-00183), roughly a year after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic ended a trial in the case three days in. On March 23, District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo invalidated five of the six anti-malware patents-in-suit, ruling that “convenient” yet unsupported testimony from the plaintiff’s expert on the meaning of the term “downloadable” failed to overcome the defendant’s argument that the patents’ claims are indefinite. That ruling follows another notable decision against Finjan in January, when Northern District of California Judge William Alsup largely granted Juniper Networks’s request for attorney fees due to the NPE’s litigation conduct in a case that he deemed a “fiasco”.

Finjan, Inc. has just seen another setback in its Northern District of California litigation against Juniper Networks (3:17-cv-05659). On January 9, District Judge William Alsup ruled that much of the NPE’s case against Juniper had been “exceptional” under Octane, due in part to Finjan’s attempt to switch out its infringement theory on the eve of trial—a misstep that led Judge Alsup to throw out its entire damages case. That decision sets the stage for an award of attorney fees against Finjan for its litigation conduct, which Judge Alsup repeatedly decried as having “wasted a great deal of everyone’s time and energy”.

As the COVID-19 pandemic forces California into a second lockdown, courts in two of the state’s federal districts have pushed back scheduled patent trials. On December 14, District Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California vacated a jury trial previously scheduled for April in litigation between TCL and Ericsson over a standard essential patent (SEP) licensing dispute. Two days later, District Judge Beth Labson Freeman postponed a Northern District of California trial from January to June in litigation filed by NPE Finjan Holdings, Inc. against Cisco following a series of prior continuances entered due to the pandemic. These delays come as other top patent venues contend with the impact of the novel coronavirus: while Chief District Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas recently halted all jury trials before him after an outbreak in a nearby division, District Judge Alan D. Albright of the Western District of Texas has indicated that he may still continue to hold trials.

On June 10, publicly traded NPE Finjan Holdings, Inc. revealed that it has agreed to be acquired by global investment manager Fortress Investment Group LLC in an all-cash deal valued at $43.9M. The press release announcing the transaction stated that Finjan “will maintain its brand and business model post-transaction”, continuing to license and enforce the anti-malware portfolio that the NPE has been asserting in litigation since 2006.

The Northern District of California has dismissed Finjan Holdings, Inc.’s case against Check Point Software Technologies with prejudice, following a joint stipulation filed by the parties on May 27 that disclosed a settlement. The dismissal comes as some of Finjan’s other cases have seen trial dates get pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic—most recently, the NPE’s pending trial against Cisco, which earlier in the week was delayed until October 19, as reflected in a May 28 SEC filing from Finjan.

Finjan, Inc., a subsidiary of publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc., has added yet another case to the long-running litigation campaign begun back in 2006, suing Singapore Telecommunications (Trustwave) (1:20-cv-00371). The plaintiff asserts just one of the nearly two dozen patents that have been at issue throughout this campaign, the lot of them generally related to anti-malware technology. Infringement allegations target the provision of anti-malware and security software, including the Trustwave Secure Email Gateway and the Trustwave Secure Web Gateway. The new complaint comes as District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo declared a mistrial—“based upon the current state of extraordinary circumstances due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic”—in a Southern District of California case brought against ESET.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. announced on January 23 a patent license and settlement agreement with BitDefender, resolving all disputes between the companies, including a lawsuit filed against BitDefender in 2017. According to an SEC filing, under the agreement, BitDefender will pay Finjan $3.8M and receive a license to each of Finjan’s patent portfolios.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. announced on May 1 that it has entered into a patent license and settlement agreement with Zscaler, resolving all claims between them, including litigation in the Northern District of California. According to an 8-K filed by Finjan, Zscaler has paid the company $7.25M and (along with certain affiliates) will receive “a license to, among others, the patents of Finjan, Finjan Mobile, Inc., and Finjan Blue, Inc.” The agreement was apparently reached amid claim construction briefing ahead of a May 28 Markman hearing. It follows Finjan’s string of settlements last year with Symantec (for up to $110M), Carbon Black (for $3.9M), and Trend Micro ($13.4M).

District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California has denied a post-trial motion by Finjan, Inc., rejecting its attempt to overturn a December noninfringement verdict for Juniper Networks and denying its request for a new trial (3:17-cv-05659). In that verdict, the jury found that Juniper had not infringed a single claim from a Finjan anti-malware patent after struggling with the application of a key claim term; in a March 11 order, Judge Alsup held that the jury had not erred by reaching that verdict. The denial of Finjan’s post-trial motions is just the latest of multiple setbacks for the NPE in this lawsuit, following significant difficulties with its damages case—including Judge Alsup’s holding that Finjan had overinflated its asserted royalty base and his decision to exclude the entire testimony of its damages expert. The single-claim December trial stemmed from the case’s first “patent shootout”, an unorthodox procedure designed by Judge Alsup to more efficiently get to the merits of a patent case by forcing the parties to litigate their best arguments first.

A California jury has issued a verdict of noninfringement for Juniper Networks in litigation brought by Finjan, Inc., finding that the defendant’s SRX and Sky ATP products do not infringe a single claim from one of the NPE’s anti-malware patents (3:17-cv-05659). The issue of infringement turned on whether the accused products contain a “database”, based on a stipulated definition of that claim term that includes the word “schema”, as itself defined in the IBM Dictionary of Computing (“IBM Dictionary”). The jury appears to have struggled with the definition of “schema”, asking the court on the last day of trial if it could refer to the IBM Dictionary definition of that term—a request that District Judge William Alsup denied because the dictionary had not been entered into evidence. The trial did not ultimately address the issue of patent subject matter eligibility, as the court had previously indicated; while the parties had proposed competing jury instructions and verdict forms on Section 101 at Judge Alsup’s apparent insistence, the parties stipulated shortly before trial that the court would decide the issue. No such ruling on patent eligibility has yet issued.

Patent subject matter eligibility has traditionally been regarded primarily as a matter of law, with facts playing a supporting role for courts asked to analyze patents under Alice and its progeny. However, through its Berkheimer and Aatrix decisions this past February, the Federal Circuit elevated that role for facts. The court ruled that a defendant cannot win early dismissal under Section 101 where a patent-holder raises sufficient issues of fact as to whether the challenged claims contain an inventive concept. This shift raised the possibility that patent eligibility might become an issue not typically decided until trial—yet a jury has not weighed in on Section 101 since the issuance of Alice, and did so only once before that. This month could see that change: in an imminent trial between Finjan, Inc. and Juniper Networks, a jury will be asked to determine if one of the NPE’s antimalware patents is invalid under Section 101. Proposed jury instructions filed on November 28 show that the parties sharply diverge as to how the jury should be instructed on that issue.

Another Finjan Holdings, Inc. patent has survived a validity challenge. On September 19, the Federal Circuit upheld a March 2017 decision in an inter partes review (IPR) filed by Palo Alto Networks, finding that a malware detection patent held by the publicly traded NPE is not invalid as obvious. The decision affirmed the PTAB’s holding that the asserted combinations of prior art did not disclose a key claim limitation related to the processing of data received over a network. It comes shortly after Finjan, buoyed by recent settlements in its ongoing litigation campaign, reported $82.3M in revenue for the first half of 2018, an increase of more than 200% over the same period last year.

Cybersecurity company Carbon Black filed for an IPO on April 9—the same day that Finjan Holdings, Inc. announced that it had entered into a patent license and settlement agreement with the company. According to an 8-K filed by Finjan, Carbon Black has agreed to pay Finjan $3.9M in license fees; further, upon acquisition of Carbon Black, or acquisitions by the company, additional one-time payments, equal to 8% of the gross revenue of certain qualifying products for the four concluded quarters preceding the acquisition, will be due to Finjan. The agreement resolves a patent infringement suit filed by Finjan against Carbon Black on March 21. It also follows a string of multi-million dollar settlements in Finjan’s anti-malware campaign, including one signed in Q1 with Symantec for up to $110M. Finjan reports having licensed its portfolio to more than 20 companies to date, generating over $350M in licensing fees; it has also indicated to investors that more such deals are in the works.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. announced on March 1 that it had entered into an agreement with Symantec and its Blue Coat Systems subsidiary that resolves all pending claims between the parties. According to an 8-K filed by Finjan, Symantec will pay $65M for a patent license, paying additional license fees of up to $45M upon Symantec’s acquisition of certain entities within four years from the agreement’s effective date. This deal follows a year in which Finjan disclosed having signed five multi-million dollar settlements in its anti-malware campaign. It also comes on the heels of the Federal Circuit’s trimming of a $39.5M Finjan trial verdict against Blue Coat.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed in large campaigns affecting a variety of market sectors in January, including the automotive campaign waged by Intellectual Ventures LLC; frequent plaintiff Realtime Data LLC’s long-running data compression and media streaming campaign; the USB device charging campaign brought by Fundamental Innovation Systems International LLC; and the mobile device campaign run by IPA Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of publicly traded Quarterhill Inc. The Board instituted trial in January for petitions against Realtime Data and in the sprawling, 12-year anti-malware campaign still being litigated by publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc. The PTAB also issued final decisions in January in IPRs against Realtime Data; ChriMar Systems, Inc.; and IP Bridge, Inc.

The Federal Circuit has overturned part of a $39.5M verdict issued in August 2015 against Symantec subsidiary Blue Coat Systems in a lawsuit brought by Finjan, Inc., a subsidiary of publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc. (5:13-cv-03999). In a January 10 opinion, the Federal Circuit reversed a finding of infringement as to one of the asserted patents, thus lowering the verdict by $7.8M, and remanded as to the $24M damages award for another patent, ruling that Finjan had provided an erroneous damages calculation at trial (2016-2520). The issuance of that decision led District Judge Beth Labson Freeman to grant Blue Coat’s motion for a mistrial in the second of two trials in Finjan’s other case against the company, which had started just two days before (5:15-cv-03295).

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) remained at the center of a heated public debate over the issue of tribal sovereign immunity in December 2017. Motions to dismiss filed by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in IPRs against several Allergan patents—acquired by the tribe and licensed back to their original owner to shield them through sovereign immunity—remain pending as the PTAB considers a wave of amicus briefs filed on both sides of the issue. The Board has since denied the tribe’s motion for an oral hearing on discovery related to alleged bias held by the USPTO and its leadership, and that bias’s effect on the selection of judges for the tribe’s case. Meanwhile, among the petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed in December was one brought by Apple against MEC Resources, LLC, an entity owned by another Native American tribe, which took over an existing lawsuit asserting the challenged patent against Apple in the fall. Also in December, the Board issued institution decisions in petitions against Iridescent Networks, Inc.; Lone Star Silicon Innovations LLC; and publicly traded Quarterhill Inc.; while an IPR against Packet Intelligence LLC ended in an adverse judgment after petitioner Sandvine prevailed in a November trial.

Amid claim construction briefing ahead of a January 18 Markman hearing, Finjan Holdings, Inc. and FireEye announced that they had entered into confidential patent license agreements, resolving litigation between the companies. According to Finjan’s December 29 press release, FireEye has agreed to pay Finjan a “one-time net settlement amount of approximately $12.5 million payable in cash”. The deal includes cross-licenses for an unidentified group of patents as well as for “any issued patents and any patent applications filed on or before the first anniversary of the date” of the agreements.

Zscaler (3:17-cv-06946) is the latest defendant to be added to Finjan, Inc.’s sole litigation campaign, which last month saw a partial infringement verdict against Symantec subsidiary Blue Coat Systems. Finjan has accused Zscaler of infringing four anti-malware patents—including one that was tried against Blue Coat in November—through provision of various products and services related to Internet access and cloud security. This latest complaint brings Finjan’s defendant count close to 20, with some targeted companies (i.e., Blue Coat, ESET) sued by the NPE in both the US and Germany.

A jury in the Northern District of California has found that Symantec subsidiary Blue Coat Systems infringed two out of six anti-malware patents at issue in a suit brought by Finjan, Inc., following a three-week trial (5:15-cv-03295). In a verdict issued on November 20, the jury declined to find that Blue Coat’s infringement of those two patents had been willful and found that the defendant had not infringed any patents under the doctrine of equivalents, also awarding $490K in damages. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict for another two of the asserted patents.

In September 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw more than ten petitions filed in NPE campaigns involving networking and related technologies such as cybersecurity, including those waged by publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc.; prolific private litigant Realtime Data LLC; and Oyster Optics, LLC. Trial was instituted in September for an inter partes review (IPR) against Finjan and in IPRs against other frequent plaintiffs, including MyMail, Ltd. and Sound View Innovations, LLC. The Board issued final decisions in two covered business method (CBM) reviews against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, the first AIA reviews against the NPE to reach final decisions since March 2016, and only the fourth to date. The PTAB also issued final decisions in IPRs against publicly traded Document Security Systems, Inc. as well as Acceleration Bay, LLC; Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, LLC; and Personalized Media Communications, LLC; among other NPEs.

Finjan, Inc., a subsidiary of publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc., has added a third new suit in its sole litigation campaign, filing suit against Juniper Networks (5:17-cv-05659) last week after suing SonicWall and Bitdefender separately in August. Each of the eight patents at issue in the newest complaint broadly concerns anti-malware technology and has been asserted against at least the prior defendants in the campaign, which has been active since 2006. Finjan targets the provision of various antivirus, cloud, and sandboxing technologies, including through Juniper’s SRX Gateways, Sky ATP, and/or Junos Space Security Director.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw the number of petitions for AIA review filed against NPEs drop by more than half in August 2017, down to 30 petitions from 68 in July. Petitions were brought in August against publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc., inventor Leigh M. Rothschild, and a mix of prolific private litigants, including Blackbird Tech LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. Meanwhile, the Board instituted trial in August for petitions against a variety of entities, including the California Institute of Technology and publicly traded Quarterhill Inc. as well as IP Bridge, Inc.; Realtime Data; and Uniloc. The PTAB also issued final decisions throughout August in campaigns waged by publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation; Advanced Touchscreen and Gesture Technologies, LLC; Elm 3DS Innovations LLC; and Rosetta-Wireless Corporation.

The sole litigation campaign of Finjan Holdings, Inc. continues to grow as it approaches trial dates in three of its ongoing cases. On August 16, the company’s Finjan, Inc. subsidiary filed suit against Bitdefender (4:17-cv-04790), alleging infringement of four patents through provision of various antivirus, cloud, and sandboxing technologies. The Bitdefender case comes on the heels of another new suit in Finjan’s campaign, filed against SonicWall (5:17-cv-04467) on August 4, and follows Finjan CEO Phil Hartstein’s recent remarks to investors about his company’s plans to accelerate its licensing and enforcement efforts.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see petitions for AIA review filed against prolific litigants in July, including a wave of petitions against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited across four separate campaigns, with petitions also brought against General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, and Quarterhill Inc. Meanwhile, throughout July, the Board instituted trial for inter partes reviews (IPRs) filed in semiconductor campaigns waged by Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology, with trial also instituted in campaigns related to network data compression (Realtime Data LLC), servers and data management (IV), and anti-malware technology (Finjan Holdings, Inc.). Final decisions issued by the Board in July included one that cancelled claims from a patent that has been asserted by Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC, an NPE controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild, against more than 60 defendants.

Publicly traded NPE Finjan Holdings, Inc. has announced a product partnership with German security software provider Avira, the same day that the two companies entered into an apparently separate $4.9M patent license agreement. Under the terms of the partnership, formed on April 21 and revealed in an April 26 press release, Finjan subsidiary Finjan Mobile, Inc. will integrate Avira’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) platform into its own VitalSecurity mobile browser suite. This deal is the first of its kind for Finjan, which continues to wage a decade-long litigation campaign that has seen multiple trials and settlements, and comes as other publicly traded NPEs have signaled that they intend to diversify their activities and move beyond patent assertion alone.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.

A California judge has declined to grant a new trial in Finjan, Inc.’s case against Sophos (3:14-cv-01197). In a ruling issued on March 14, District Judge William H. Orrick denied the company’s motion for a new trial as well as a motion for attorney fees filed by Finjan, ruling that the case was not exceptional under Octane.

Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge 1), a subsidiary of Japanese patent monetization firm IP Bridge, Inc., filed an affirmative case asserting two former Panasonic patents (7,265,450; 7,893,501) against Xilinx (2:17-cv-00100) in the Eastern District of Texas on January 31, the expiration date of a standstill agreement entered into by the two parties to facilitate licensing discussions. The next day, Xilinx filed a complaint (3:17-cv-00509) in the Northern District of California that seeks declaratory judgments that the company does not infringe any valid claim from twelve former Panasonic patents (6,483,151; 6,492,665; 6,653,731; 6,873,052; 6,969,915; 7,053,461; 7,417,289; 7,525,189; 7,564,102; 7,728,439; 8,203,186; 8,278,763) held by IP Bridge 1. All fourteen patents at issue in the two cases generally relate to various aspects of semiconductor fabrication. The day after expiration of a similar standstill agreement (July 1, 2016), Finjan, Inc. (3:16-cv-03731) and ESET (3:16-cv-01704) filed competing complaints in the Northern and Southern Districts of California, respectively; Finjan won that battle but appears to have lost the war, as last week the Northern District granted a motion to change venue, transferring the case before it down to the Southern District (3:17-cv-00183).

Finjan Holdings, Inc. has added Avast and subsidiary AVG (4:17-cv-00283) to its decade-long litigation campaign, accusing the companies of infringing six anti-malware patents (6,154,844; 7,930,299; 7,975,305; 8,079,086; 8,141,154; 8,677,494) through the provision of AVG security software and services. This latest complaint comes less than two weeks after another suit filed by Finjan against Cisco (3:17-cv-00072), which is alleged to infringe the ‘844, ‘154, and ‘494 patents along with two others (6,804,780; 7,647,633) through similar products.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. has added Cisco (3:17-cv-00072) to its long-running litigation campaign, accusing the company of infringing five anti-malware patents 6,154,844; 6,804,780; 7,647,633; 8,141,154; 8,677,494). At issue are various types of Cisco security software and services, including its Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and AMP Threat Grid, Cisco Collective Security Intelligence (CCSI), and Cisco Outbreak Filters technologies, as well as the threat detection services offered by Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group.

Finjan Holdings, Inc. has added F5 Networks to its decade-long litigation campaign, accusing the company of infringing four anti-malware patents (6,965,968; 7,975,305; 8,141,154; 8,677,494) through its security software (3:16-cv-06955). The suit follows a potential setback in the NPE’s suit against Sophos, which on November 28 requested a new trial in the wake of a $15M infringement verdict issued against the company in September.

District Judge William Orrick has entered a judgment against Sophos, affirming a September jury verdict that the company directly infringed five Finjan, Inc. anti-malware patents (3:14-cv-01197). The October 31 judgment orders Sophos to pay $15M in damages and follows a failed attempt by Blue Coat Systems to overturn a jury’s $39.5M verdict against the company in a another suit brought by Finjan. For RPX’s past coverage of the verdicts against Sophos and Blue Coat Systems, see here and here, respectively.

Finjan, Inc., a subsidiary of publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc., has filed a third patent infringement suit against Blue Coat Systems, this time in Germany. Finjan’s latest suit, filed on October 14 in the German District Court of Dusseldorf, asserts a European patent (EP 0 965 094) generally related to anti-malware technology–the same patent the NPE asserted in a July suit in Germany against ESET. This week’s filing follows a failed attempt by Blue Coat to overturn a jury’s $39.5M verdict against the company in another suit brought by Finjan in the US. It also comes less than a month after a California jury awarded Finjan $15M in damages in a trial against Sophos.

A California jury has issued a verdict against Sophos, finding on September 21 that the company’s security software infringes five anti-malware patents (6,154,844; 6,804,780; 7,613,926; 8,141,154; 8,677,494) asserted by Finjan, Inc. (3:14-cv-01197). However, while the jury awarded Finjan $15M in damages, it also determined that Sophos had not willfully infringed the patents-in-suit. The jury’s decision follows the July denial of a motion by campaign co-defendant Blue Coat Systems to overturn a $39.5M verdict against the company in another suit brought by Finjan (5:13-cv-03999).