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Law360 (December 16, 2020, 10:43 PM EST ) A California federal judge on Wednesday again delayed Finjan's patent infringement suit against Cisco amid the coronavirus pandemic, moving the scheduled start of the trial from January to June.
U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman previously attempted to schedule the trial for various dates including potential starts in June, October and November, first declining in October to set it for January, as Cisco requested, before changing her mind a few weeks later.
The judge's brief order did not explain why she set the date for June, and it came with the parties not having submitted any briefing on the trial dates since September.
Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Finjan initially hit Cisco with a lawsuit in January 2017 alleging its products infringe five Finjan patents that cover ways to protect computers from malicious software and viruses when connected to the internet. Finjan claims that Cisco's infringement began when it acquired technology from a company called Sourcefire Inc. and then refused to enter a licensing agreement with Finjan.
Cisco denies the allegations and has sought to invalidate at least some of the patents-in-suit.
In April, Judge Freeman told the attorneys to prepare for a June 15 trial. At the time, the judge said she was "fairly confident" Finjan's patent infringement suit could go before a jury in June and July, even with social distancing restrictions in place.
But the Northern District of California's top judge issued an order in May postponing or vacating all new civil jury trials scheduled to commence through Sept. 30, citing the continued disruptions to the judicial system caused by the pandemic.
During a status conference in May, Judge Freeman pushed the start of the trial to Oct. 19, saying she had "high hopes" it would be the first civil jury trial in the district, but that the court's "enormous backlog" of criminal cases would take priority.
The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,844, 6,804,780, 7,647,633, 8,141,154 and 8,677,494.
Finjan is represented by Juanita Brooks, Roger Denning, Frank J. Albert, Megan A. Chacon, K. Nicole Williams, Oliver J. Richards, Jared A. Smith, Tucker N. Terhufen, Aamir Kazi and Alana C. Mannige of Fish & Richardson PC.
Cisco is represented by Nicole E. Grigg, D. Stuart Bartow, Joseph A. Powers, Jarrad M. Gunther, L. Norwood Jameson, Matthew C. Gaudet, David C. Dotson, John R. Gibson, Jennifer H. Forte and Alice E. Snedeker of Duane Morris LLP.
The case is Finjan LLC v. Cisco Systems Inc., case number 5:17-cv-00072, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
--Additional reporting by Lauren Berg. Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.
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