Cisco defeats Centripetal patent case that led to $2.75 billion award

FILE PHOTO: The Cisco logo is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo

(Reuters) - A federal judge in Virginia has rejected cybersecurity company Centripetal Networks' patent infringement claims against Cisco Systems in a multi-billion-dollar fight over network-security technology.

A different judge in the same court, U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan, had awarded Centripetal $2.75 billion in the case in 2020, marking the largest patent damages award in U.S. history. A federal appeals court later overturned that award on ethics grounds because Morgan's wife owned Cisco stock.