* Ciena sues Nortel over patent infringement
Ciena last week filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, charging Nortel with infringing on six patents related to Ciena’s ATM, SONET and wave division multiplexing technology. The suit comes after the expiration of an agreement reached between the companies two years ago not to sue each other over alleged intellectual property infringements but instead to attempt to forge licensing agreements.
Ciena last week filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, charging Nortel with infringing on six patents related to Ciena’s ATM, SONET and wave division multiplexing technology.
The suit comes after the expiration of an agreement reached between the companies two years ago not to sue each other over alleged intellectual property infringements but instead to attempt to forge licensing agreements.
Ciena claims Nortel is infringing on three ATM patents, two WDM patents and one SONET award. Ciena alleges its intellectual property is used in Nortel’s Optical Long Haul 1600, DWDM Terminal, Metro 3000, 4000 and 5000, Multiservice Edge 6500, and Cross Connect HDX, and Common Photonic Layer systems; and Passport 7000, 15000 and 20000 series platforms.
Ciena did not disclose the amount of damages it seeks from Nortel.
“We are reviewing the allegations and will vigorously defend ourselves,” a Nortel spokeswoman says.
Two years ago, the companies entered into an agreement to dismiss a pending lawsuit originally brought by Nortel in March 2000 against ONI Systems for patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Ciena subsequently acquired ONI and thus became the defendant in the action.
As part of the settlement, Nortel granted Ciena a license under certain patents for a one-time payment of $25 million. Nortel also agreed to dismiss without prejudice the patent infringement lawsuit it brought against Ciena in November 2002.
The companies also agreed not to sue each other for patent infringement for two years, during which time they sought to negotiate a cross-license arrangement between them. They failed to reach such an agreement, a Ciena spokeswoman says.
