NetFuel, Inc. has filed a second case, against Cisco (5:18-cv-02352), in the litigation campaign that it began in November 2013 with a suit against F5 Networks. A June 2017 claim construction order in that case appears to have motivated a quick resolution of the dispute, which the parties ended last July, and the plaintiff has now asserted against Cisco the patent-at-issue in that prior case, together with a subsequently issuing family member, both generally related to the use of software agents to improve network performance. NetFuel alleges infringement by Cisco through the provision of networking software systems (IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, and NX-OS) “and Cisco network devices running and/or incorporating [that] networking software”.

NetFuel filed its first patent assertion suit this week, targeting F5 with two patents related to computer network management (7,747,730; 8,131,851). The suit accuses F5’s traffic and network management products of infringing the patents. NetFuel incorporated in 2000 and the company’s primary product appears to be its patents, which include the two asserted as well as one pending application. The company’s website, last updated in 2010, advertises its relationships with other companies including Cisco and IBM. 11/4, Northern District of Illinois, 1:13cv07895