Arista infringed on Cisco's copyright but does not have to pay damages, a jury ruled. That's a major win for Arista.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

December 14, 2016

2 Min Read
Arista Wins Big in Ongoing Cisco Court Battle

Arista scored a significant victory in its ongoing, sprawling court battle against Cisco on Wednesday, as a jury in a federal court in San Jose said Arista owes no damages over Cisco's claims of copyright infringement of its user interfaces.

The jury found Arista Networks Inc. infringes on Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)'s user interface, but it ruled against Cisco on "the narrow legal issue of 'scènes à faire,' " Cisco said in a statement.

Scènes à faire is a principle of copyright law that protects creators in "situations in which there is essentially no other way to express a particular idea except by using certain elements," according to intellectual property attorney Ivan Hoffman. He cites the example of a photographer who claimed two other photographers infringed his copyright on photos of a vodka bottle; the court basically ruled there aren't a lot of ways to photograph a vodka bottle. Wikipedia cites another example: "...a motion picture about the South Bronx would need to feature drunks, prostitutes, vermin, and derelict cars to be perceived as realistic..." (I'm sure the New York Chamber of Commerce loved that.)

Another example: Computer programmers often list variables at the beginning of the source code of a program, and some programming languages also require declaring the type of variable.

Cisco says, "We are reviewing the details of the ruling and determining Cisco's options for post-trial motions and appeal given the clear testimony that other suppliers use very different commands."

Cisco initially filed its patent and copyright lawsuit against Arista in December 2014. (See Cisco Slams Arista With Massive Patent & Copyright Suit.)

Find out more about key developments related to the systems and technologies deployed in data centers on Light Reading's Data Center Infrastructure Channel .

In separate but related decisions, the International Trade Commission ruled against Arista regarding three Cisco patents, and a judge at the ITC made a finding of infringement against Arista on Friday on two additional patents, Cisco notes.

Arista has been blocked from importing equipment as a result of the ITC decision, but it says it has implemented "design-arounds" to ensure compliance, and is ramping up US production. (See Arista Banned From Importing Products – Cisco and Arista Ready With 'Design-Arounds' Following Import Ban Recommendation.)

In a statement, Arista thanked the jury and judge for its work. "Today's verdict represents an important victory not only for Arista but for the entire industry," Marc Taxay, senior vice president and general counsel of Arista, said in the statement.

— Mitch Wagner, Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editor, Light Reading Enterprise Cloud

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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