Cisco Can't Shield Customers From Patent Suits, Court Rules

netbuzz writes "A federal appeals court in California has upheld a lower court ruling that Cisco lacks the necessary standing to seek dismissal of patent infringement lawsuits against some of its biggest customers – wireless network providers and enterprises – being brought by TR Labs, a Canadian research consortium. The appeals court agreed with TR Labs' that its patent infringement claims are rightfully against the users of telecommunications equipment – be it made by Cisco, Juniper, Ciena or others – and not the manufacturers. 'In fact, all of the claims and all of the patents are directed at a communications network, not the particular switching nodes that are manufactured by Cisco and the other companies that are subject of our claims,' an attorney for TR Labs told the court. The court made no judgment relative to the patents themselves or the infringement claims."

Comments

Re:judges said Cisco products don't infringe

[Errol backfiring]

According to the rulings, suing Cisco would be like suing Xerox for copyright infringement.

Or Napster for copyright infringment. Or the Pirate Bay. Or.... Somehow judges have no difficulty at all with such a reasoning.

Re:judges said Cisco products don't infringe

[smpoole7]

> So there's really nothing to get upset about here.

Of course there is. A dumb ruling sets a precedent that may not affect *you* in the instant case, but it could certainly set a precedent that another company could use to come after *you* later.

Judge any and all cases on the *merits* and the underlying principles, not on whether you like or identify with the defendant.