Cisco Systems Sues Rival for Infringement of Network Patents

Washington: Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc filed two lawsuits on Friday against smaller rival Arista Networks Inc, accusing it of copying Cisco's networking technologies.

In the lawsuits, filed in a California district court, Cisco accused Arista of infringing on 14 patents related to networks and also infringing on related copyrights, Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler said in a blog post.

Cisco alleged in one of the lawsuits that Arista was formed by former Cisco employees, including Arista founder and Chief Development Officer Andreas Bechtolsheim, Arista founder and Chief Technology Officer Kenneth Duda and Arista President and Chief Executive Officer Jayshree Ullal.

'Rather than building its products and services based on new technologies developed by Arista, however, and providing legitimate competition to Cisco, Arista took a shortcut by blatantly and extensively copying the innovative networking technologies designed and developed by Cisco,' Cisco said in one of the complaints.

Cisco is a giant in the networking world, with revenues of $12.2 billion in the third quarter. Arista, in contrast, is growing fast but had revenues of just $155.5 million in the third quarter of 2014.

Attempts to reach Arista for comment were not immediately successful.

Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2014