The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) recently released the public version of its decision in an investigation of whether Arista infringes Cisco patents, rejecting Arista’s defense and public interest arguments that the patents allegedly cover a de facto standard and are subject to a FRAND obligation.   Arista’s defense was based on Cisco’s submission to IETF of a request for comments document (RFC 5517), which stated it was not a standard, along with a commitment by Cisco to license patents on FRAND terms IF (1) RFC 5517 was adopted as a standard AND (2) the patents are essential to practice such standard.  The ITC rejected Arista’s de facto standard defense because, among other things, there was no evidence that RFC 5517 was adopted as an industry standard or that the patents-in-suit covered RFC 5517, both of which were preconditions under Cisco’s commitment to IETF before triggering a FRAND obligation.
Continue Reading ITC rejects de facto standard defense (337-TA-944, Cisco v. Arista)