Network-1 Announces Settlement of Patent Litigation with Cisco, Major Networking Vendors
Network-1 Security Solutions, Inc. announced that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against Adtran, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc. and Cisco-Linksys, LLC, (collectively, "Cisco"), Enterasys Networks, Inc., Extreme Networks, Inc., Foundry Networks, Inc., and 3Com Corp., Inc., pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, for infringement of Network-1’s Remote Power Patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,218,930.
As part of the settlement, Adtran, Cisco, Enterasys, Extreme Networks and Foundry Networks each entered into a settlement agreement with Network-1 and agreed to enter into non-exclusive licenses for the Remote Power Patent (the "Licensed Defendants"). Under the terms of the licenses, the Licensed Defendants agreed to pay to Network-1 an aggregate upfront payment of approximately $32 million and have also agreed to license the Remote Power Patent for its full term, which expires in March 2020.
In addition, Cisco agreed to pay royalties (beginning in 2011) based on its sales of Power over Ethernet ("PoE") products up to maximum royalty payments per year of $8 million through 2015 and $9 million per year thereafter for the remaining term of the patent. The royalty payments are subject to certain conditions including the continued validity of Network-1’s Remote Power Patent, and the actual royalty amounts received may be less than the caps stated above.
The settlement with 3Com provides for a dismissal of the litigation without prejudice. The release covers sales of certain 3Com Power over Ethernet products sold through the date of the settlement. In addition, Network-1 and 3Com’s parent, Hewlett Packard Corp., agreed that the dismissal does not apply to Hewlett-Packard Power over Ethernet products and that any future litigation involving Network-1 and Hewlett Packard involving the Remote Power Patent will be in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The Remote Power Patent relates to, among other things, delivering power over Ethernet cables to remotely power network connected devices including, among others, wireless switches, wireless access points, RFID card readers, VoIP telephones and network cameras. In June 2003, the IEEE approved the 802.3af PoE Standard which led to the rapid adoption of PoE.
