This case involves a patent that was issued to the plaintiff in the early 2000’s for controlling and mediating access to the internet from private computer networks. The patent described a number of different features that enabled network administrators to control the kind of content users on their private network would have access to, manipulating firewall-to-firewall encrypted settings as well as a number of cyber security features that prevented malicious user actions from penetrating the private internal network. Some years later, a competing service emerged offering a product that boasted a number of similar features, a product that was described as a “network traffic and content mediation system.” While some of the methods in which the competing company’s product provided their security services differed from those of the plaintiff company, it was alleged that the overall architecture of the program infringed on the plaintiff’s original patents for the 2000’s, which were still in effect when the competing product was launched.
