Secure Computing and Finjan Software will let a judge
decide a dispute over multiple patents associated with the two
vendors' products.
The dispute began in 2006 when UK-based Finjan filed a patent
infringement lawsuit against Secure Computing and its subsidiaries,
CyberGuard and WebWasher. Finjan claims that
Webwasher Secure Content Management software suite, IronMail
and Cyberguard TSP products infringe a number of its patents. The
case is scheduled to go to trial in March 2008.
San Jose-based Secure Computing filed a lawsuit in U.S. District
Court in Minnesota on Wednesday claiming that Finjan's
load-balancing security products, including its Vital Security Load
Balancer NG-5300 infringes on one of its patents. Secure Computing
also claims Finjan conducted a false advertising campaign with
misleading statements about its technology. The suite seeks
unspecified monetary damages.
Secure Computing is also counterclaiming Finjan's lawsuit in
U.S. District Court in Delaware asserting that some of Finjan's
security products, including its Vital Security Internet Box
infringe on one of its patents. The company said it has 80 patents
worldwide.
In a statement on its Web site, Finjan said its patents date
back to 1996.
"Finjan intends to vigorously defend against these allegations,
and does not believe any of Secure Computing's claims have merit,"
Finjan said. "Finjan holds several of the earliest patents covering
various aspects of web security. The intellectual property in the
current patent infringement case involves systems and methods for
protecting a computer and a network from hostile downloadables
and/or malicious code, with a priority date of November 8,
1996."