US trade group kicks off patent suit by Canadian company
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will investigate certain Cisco products, based on a patent infringement complaint filed by Canadian intellectual property owner MOSAID. MOSAID filed the complaint in May, charging Cisco with infringing on six MOSAID patents involving Power over Ethernet switches and routers, DSL wireless access points, cable modem wireless access points, PoE IP phones, and VoIP cable modems.
Cisco has said this MOSAID suit is an attempt by the company to circumvent litigation currently underway in Delaware between the two, involving 10 of MOSAID’s PoE patents. In that Delaware case, Cisco said it did not believe its products violated any MOSAID patents and found it ironic that the Canadian company was seeking to have the ITC — — a US government office created to protect US manufacturers – block the sale of Cisco products in the US.
The Delaware case was initiated by Cisco in August 2010. The six patents at issue in MOSAID’s ITC complaint are also part of the Delaware case.
“The ITC’s decision to review our complaint is an important first step in this case,” said John Lindgren, MOSAID president and CEO, in a statement. “We filed this complaint because we believe that Cisco, which is the market leader in PoE-enabled networking and communications products, is infringing MOSAID’s PoE patents and requires a license to our patented technology.”
Investigations conducted by the ITC typically take 15 to 18 months, according to MOSAID. The ITC should set a target date for completion of its investigation within 45 days, the patent company said.
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