A Florida-based company is suing Cisco Systems for
alleged patent infringement, charging the networking giant with
stealing its routing technology.
ConnecTel claims Cisco is using without compensation a set of
technologies that ConnecTel founder Allen Kaplan invented in the
1990s. ConnecTel is seeking unspecified damages and attorney's fees
as well as an injunction to stop the alleged infringement.
At the heart of the complaint is an intelligent data routing
system that can choose the best data path and transmission method
in real time, based on multiple factors including bandwidth,
availability, security and the user's priority. Kaplan applied for
patents on the technology in 1996.
Kaplan originally developed the technology as a way to
streamline the delivery of faith-based inspirational faxes, the
complaint said. He and a partner founded ConnecTel to commercialise
the intelligent routing system but the company has never made
products itself, choosing instead to license the technology to
other companies.
ConnecTel introduced its technology to Cisco and offered the
company a chance to license it, and Cisco rejected the offer only
to later develop product lines that used it, according to the
complaint.
According to Daniel Perez, an attourney at Winstead Sechrest
& Minick, "A large percentage of Cisco's routers and switches
are infringing on one or more of the patents." As an example he
cited the Cisco AS5350 Universal Gateway, a wide-area network
gateway that can provide data, voice, and fax services on any port
at any time.
Cisco was unable to comment on the ConnecTel suit because it has
not yet seen the complaint.
Stephen Lawson writes for IDG News Service