New York, September 19, 2011– Network-1 Security Solutions, Inc. (OTC BB: NSSI) announced today that it has initiated patent litigation against 16 data networking equipment manufacturers in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, for infringement of United States Patent No. 6,218,930 (the “Remote Power Patent”).
Named as defendants in the lawsuit, excluding related parties, are Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., Allied Telesis, Inc., Avaya Inc., AXIS Communications Inc., Dell, Inc., GarrettCom, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei Technologies USA, Juniper Networks, Inc., Motorola Solutions, Inc., NEC Corporation, Polycom, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, ShoreTel, Inc., Sony Electronics, Inc., and Transition Networks, Inc.
Network-1 seeks monetary damages based upon reasonable royalties.
The Remote Power Patent, entitled “Apparatus and Method for Remotely Powering Access Equipment Over a 10/100 Switched Ethernet Network,” relates to, among other things, a key technology used in equipment that complies with the IEEE 802.3af Power Over Ethernet (PoE) standard (the “PoE Standard”) that was approved in June 2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (the “IEEE”). PoE delivers power over Ethernet cables to remotely power network connected devices including wireless switches, wireless access points, RFID card readers, VOIP telephones, and network cameras. The Remote Power Patent was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on April 17, 2001 and expires on March 11, 2020.
As previously disclosed, on July 19, 2010, Network-1 settled its previous patent litigation against Adtran, Inc, Cisco Systems, Inc. and Cisco-Linksys, LLC, Enterasys Networks, Inc., Extreme Networks, Inc., Foundry Networks, Inc., and 3Com Corporation, Inc., for infringement of the Remote Power Patent. In August 2005, Network-1 initiated patent litigation against D-Link Systems and D-Link Corporation relating to the Remote Power Patent. In May 2007, after two years of protracted litigation, D-Link Systems and D-Link Corporation also agreed to license the Remote Power Patent. Network-1 presently has eleven licensees to the Remote Power Patent.
“We have made repeated efforts, at considerable expense, to license the Remote Power Patent on reasonable terms to companies manufacturing and selling Power over Ethernet technology”, said Corey M. Horowitz, Chairman and CEO of Network-1. “ We hope that the remainder of the industry will license our patented technology rather than devote substantial resources to continued litigation.”
“We prefer licensing the Remote Power Patent without the distraction and cost of litigation. But, as we have made very clear, we will take whatever action is necessary to protect our intellectual property rights,” Mr. Horowitz continued. “As demonstrated in litigating our last case through trial, we are willing to litigate and will continue to do so until those using our intellectual property without permission take a license to the Remote Power Patent.”
ABOUT NETWORK-1 SECURITY SOLUTIONS, INC.
Network-1 Security Solutions, Inc. is engaged in the acquisition, development, licensing and protection of its intellectual property and proprietary technologies. It currently owns six patents covering various telecommunications and data networking technologies and is currently focusing its licensing efforts on its Remote Power Patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,218,930) covering the remote delivery of power over Ethernet networks. Network-1 has 11 license agreements with respect to its Remote Power Patent that include, among others, license agreements with Cisco Systems, Inc., Cisco-Linksys, Inc., Extreme Networks, Inc., Netgear Inc. and several other data networking vendors. The Remote Power Patent was granted by the U.S. Office of Patents and Trademarks on April 21, 2001 and expires on March 11, 2020.
