U.S. Supreme Court docket rejects Centripetal attraction in Cisco patent struggle By Reuters

By Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court docket on Monday declined to listen to a bid by Centripetal Networks Inc to reinstate the biggest award within the historical past of U.S. patent legislation – $2.75 billion – to be paid by Cisco Techniques Inc (NASDAQ:) in a cybersecurity patent dispute.

The justices turned away Reston, Virginia-based cybersecurity firm Centripetal’s attraction of a decrease courtroom’s determination to negate the award after the choose who presided over the trial disclosed that his spouse owned Cisco inventory value $4,688.

Judicial conflicts of curiosity have attracted heightened consideration for the reason that Wall Avenue Journal final yr reported that dozens of federal judges had violated federal legislation by listening to lawsuits involving firms by which they or their households owned inventory.

Centripetal sued Cisco in federal courtroom in Virginia in 2018, accusing it of infringing patents associated to Centripetal’s network-security know-how.

U.S. District Choose Henry Morgan, who died in Could of this yr, dominated in 2020 after a non-jury trial that San Jose, California-based tech firm Cisco had infringed the patents. The choose awarded Centripetal $1.9 billion in damages plus royalties that Cisco mentioned elevated the full to greater than $2.7 billion.

Morgan instructed the businesses earlier than issuing his ruling that his spouse owned 100 shares of Cisco inventory, although he was unaware of it throughout the trial. Morgan mentioned it had not influenced his dealing with of the case and he already had written a lot of the ruling and determined “nearly each concern” earlier than studying of her inventory. The choose positioned the shares in a blind belief.

The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which makes a speciality of patent points, threw out the award in June and despatched the dispute again to a brand new choose in Virginia. The Federal Circuit discovered that Morgan both ought to have recused himself from the case or made positive the inventory was bought.

The Federal Circuit mentioned letting the choose’s determination within the case stand would undermine the general public’s confidence within the judicial course of. It additionally discovered it irrelevant that Morgan dominated in opposition to his spouse’s monetary pursuits.

Centripetal instructed the Supreme Court docket that Morgan had complied with the legislation, and that promoting the shares simply earlier than ruling for Cisco would “remedy one appearance-of-impropriety downside by creating one other.”