The Supreme Court is taking up a patent infringement dispute between computer networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. and rival Commil USA.

Also on Friday, Cisco filed a patent suit against another rival: Arista.

Busines Insider described the Arista suit with this headline; “A Fed-Up Cisco Is Suing A Hated Rival Founded By Cisco Defectors.”

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.

The justices said Friday they will consider a federal appeals court’s decision to throw out a $64 million jury verdict against Cisco for allegedly infringing Commil’s patent for wireless technology.

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the jury should have considered evidence of Cisco’s good-faith belief that Commil’s patent was invalid.

Commil argues that the appeals court’s ruling undermines the Patent Act’s ability to deter infringement. But Cisco says its reasonable belief that the patent was invalid can be raised as a defense.

The case will be argued in March.

Earlier Friday, Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler disclosed in a blog the networking giant’s action against Arista.

“In the thirteen years I’ve been General Counsel of Cisco, I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve initiated suit against a competitor, supplier or customer,” Chandler wrote.

“It’s therefore only after thoughtful and serious consideration that we are today filing two lawsuits to stop Arista’s repeated and pervasive copying of key inventions in Cisco products. These suits cover key Cisco proprietary patented features and Cisco’s copyrighted materials.”

Cisco also filed a copyright suit.

“We have taken this action only after assuring ourselves of four key facts – all of which form the basis for legitimate intellectual property actions between competitors,” Chandler wrote:

  • “Arista incorporates features knowing that Cisco holds intellectual property rights related to those features, all of which are Cisco proprietary and none of which are industry standards
  • “Arista intentionally markets those features to its customers as a basis for buying the products
  • “Arista promotes its copying to convince investors to finance the company
  • “Arista’s actions, if unstopped, will embolden others to seek to do the same”

The full blog can be read online.

Read more from Business Insider at: http://www.businessinsider.com/cisco-sues-arista-networks-2014-12#ixzz3L3atq6lf