Plaintiff
17 cases as plaintiff.
Centripetal Networks, LLC is a privately held cybersecurity company founded in 2009 and headquartered in the Herndon/Reston, Virginia area. The venture-backed company provides intelligence-driven network security solutions and has an estimated 75-115 employees. Sources have reported its annual revenue in the range of $24 million.
Centripetal operates in the field of proactive cybersecurity. Its main offerings are a service called CleanINTERNET® and a hardware appliance known as the RuleGate® Threat Intelligence Gateway. This system is designed to filter network traffic in real-time by applying rules based on a massive aggregation of threat intelligence data, blocking known threats before they can enter a customer's network. The company states its technology is protected by over 90 U.S. and international patents.
The company is an active patent litigant. The provided data shows an even split between plaintiff and defendant cases, which is characteristic of an operating company asserting its intellectual property against competitors and defending those same patents from challenges. Centripetal has filed its infringement suits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The defensive cases against it are reviews before the USPTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), a common venue for defendants to challenge patent validity.
Centripetal has been involved in high-stakes litigation against major technology companies. The tracked cases show it suing Keysight Technologies and Palo Alto Networks in January 2022 over its network security patents. In February 2024, a federal jury awarded Centripetal over $150 million in its suit against Palo Alto Networks. While not listed in the tracked cases above, the company also won a significant, multi-billion dollar judgment against Cisco Systems in 2020 in the Eastern District of Virginia, although this ruling was later set aside on appeal for reasons related to judicial conduct.
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Centripetal appeals the PTAB's Final Written Decision in IPR2022-01421 finding all claims of the '009 patent unpatentable. The appeal was docketed April 30, 2025, and no merits decision has been confirmed.
Centripetal Networks, LLC appealed the PTAB's Final Written Decision in IPR2023-00445 (Keysight) finding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,785,266 unpatentable.
Centripetal appealed the PTAB's IPR2022-01525 Final Written Decision invalidating all claims of the '526 patent. The Federal Circuit affirmed the Board's unpatentability findings in a non-precedential decision.
Centripetal appealed the PTAB's final written decision in IPR2022-01535. The appeal was voluntarily dismissed under Fed. R. App. P. 42(b) on January 14, 2025, without a merits ruling, and the mandate issued January 29, 2025.
Centripetal Networks appealed the PTAB's initial decision in IPR2022-00182 (and related IPRs) concerning US9917856. The Federal Circuit vacated the decision and remanded the case for further proceedings, citing the PTAB's failure to adequately consider evidence of copying.
Centripetal Networks filed a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to direct the PTAB to vacate institution decisions related to US9917856 based on recusal issues, which the Federal Circuit denied.
This case was stayed pending the outcome of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. Following a CAFC decision finding the patent unpatentable, the case is subject to dismissal.
This case was stayed pending the outcome of related PTAB proceedings. Given the CAFC's final judgment on the patent's invalidity, this case is also subject to dismissal.
Patent infringement suit filed by Centripetal against Keysight, listed as involving the '474 patent. It was intradistrict-transferred from the Alexandria Division to the Norfolk Division on Jan. 4, 2022; the final merits disposition is not confirmed in the retrieved sources.
Companion Virginia action filed by Centripetal against Keysight, initially docketed in the Alexandria Division and transferred to the Norfolk Division on January 4, 2022. It was stayed alongside the related Virginia action pending appeal outcomes.
Centripetal Networks, LLC (sued as Centripetal Networks, Inc.) sued Palo Alto Networks asserting 13 patents, including '49906. A jury awarded about $151.1 million on other patents, but not '49906; post-trial, the court granted Palo Alto judgment as a matter of law of non-infringement on the '437 patent and reduced the award. Post-judgment proceedings and Centripetal's Federal Circuit appeal were ongoing.
Centripetal sued Palo Alto Networks, alleging infringement of the '380 patent among 13 patents asserted against products including Next-Generation Firewall, Panorama, Cortex, AutoFocus, MineMeld, and DNS Security Service. On January 13, 2024, the court granted summary judgment of no direct infringement of the '380 patent, removing it before trial. A jury verdict covered four other patents, and an appeal is pending at the Federal Circuit.
Initially, a judgment was issued in favor of Centripetal Networks finding Cisco willfully infringed four patents, including US9917856. This verdict was later vacated by the Federal Circuit due to a conflict of interest, and the case was remanded. The district court administratively closed the case in July 2025, pending appeals.
Initially awarded over $1.9 billion to Centripetal for willful infringement of several patents, this judgment was later vacated and remanded due to judicial recusal. The Federal Circuit ultimately affirmed a subsequent district court judgment of non-infringement in favor of Cisco, specifically for the '806 patent (a parent of 10511572), finding Cisco's products did not meet a key claim limitation.
Centripetal appealed the ITC's no-violation determination in Inv. No. 337-TA-1314. Centripetal did not appeal the Commission's invalidity/non-infringement findings on the '526 patent, so the appeal concerned the other asserted patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 10,193,917 and 9,264,370.
Appeal of the post-remand decision in the Cisco case, including Judge Hanes' no-infringement finding. The Federal Circuit panel heard argument on April 7, 2026; no final disposition had been reported as of the argument date.
Centripetal Networks, LLC sued Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in E.D. Va. The case proceeded through damages, §101, and claim-construction motions. Palo Alto also filed IPRs against related Centripetal patents, including IPR2021-01150 and IPR2022-00182 on the '856 patent. The '401 patent was not identified as asserted in this case.