Symantec Granted Summary Judgment Against SRI International In Patent Dispute

Symantec Granted Summary Judgment Against SRI International In Patent Dispute

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced that the United States District Court for Delaware recently granted summary judgment in Symantec’s favor against all patent infringement claims asserted by SRI International, Inc. The ruling resolves the dispute prior to trial. The court held that SRI’s patents were invalid based on prior printed publications authored by SRI employees more than one year before the earliest patent application was filed.

“We are pleased that we were able to win this case on summary judgment, avoiding the cost and burden of trial for Symantec,” said Michael Schallop, director, Symantec Legal Division. “SRI has the right to appeal, but we are confident that the Court’s opinion will be upheld.” SRI sued Symantec in 2004, alleging that Symantec infringed four patents – U.S. Patent Nos. 6,321,338 (‘338 patent), 6,484,203 (‘203 patent), 6,708,212 (‘212 patent), and 6,711,615 (‘615 patent) – based on Symantec’s manufacture, use, and sale of certain network intrusion detection products.

In related proceedings, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), at Symantec’s request, has declared that it will independently re-examine the patentability of the ‘338, ‘203, and ‘212 patents based on several different prior art publications. The USPTO has not yet ruled on Symantec’s pending request to re-examine the ‘615 patent.

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