Veeam has revealed that the first patent litigation Symantec brought against Veeam in February of 2012 has ended with a "resounding victory" for the data centre solutions provider.
Last month, Symantec dismissed its Federal Circuit appeal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to cancel all asserted claims of the final remaining patent asserted by Symantec in that district court action, U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,086.
When it first sued Veeam, Symantec asserted that Veeam’s products infringed various claims from four Symantec patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,093,086, 6,931,558, 7,191,299, and 7,254,682.
Over the next three years, Veeam either forced Symantec to dismiss the asserted claims of the patents with prejudice in the district court action or obtained rulings from the USPTO that the asserted patent claims were invalid in the Inter Partes Review proceedings initiated by Veeam, or both.
The first case is now over, and Symantec cannot assert these patent claims against Veeam’s current products again.
“This is a big victory for Veeam," says Ratmir Timashev, CEO, Veeam.
"I am pleased with the USPTO rulings. This case shows that Veeam will not back down in the face of threats, even when those threats are made by a large company like Symantec."
In the Inter Partes Review proceedings that Veeam brought against Symantec’s asserted patents, the USPTO invalidated:
• Claims 1, 11, 12, and 22 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,086
• Claims 1-15, 17-23 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,558
• Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 14, and 15 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,299
In March and August of 2013, Symantec dismissed with prejudice the ’558, ’299, and ’682 patents from the case.
In October 2012, Symantec filed a second patent infringement case against Veeam, asserting that Veeam’s products infringed claims from four additional patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,024,527, 8,117,168, 7,831,861, and 7,480,822.
In October 2013, Veeam filed Inter Partes Review proceedings against these four patents to invalidate the asserted claims, and in April 2014, the USPTO determined that Veeam established a reasonable likelihood of proving that those asserted claims are indeed invalid.
The USPTO should issue final decisions about the validity of the asserted patent claims in those four proceedings in April 2015.
In the meantime, Symantec joined Veeam’s motion to stay the district court proceedings pending the outcome of the USPTO’s April decision, and the district court stayed the case.
