Aerohive Files Action to Invalidate Competitor Patent and For Declaration of Non-Infringement

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aerohive Networks™, the leader in controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud-enabled networking, announced today that it has filed an action seeking a determination that a competitor’s claims of patent infringement are without merit and that the asserted patent is invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed.

“We believe that this legal action in no way affects use of Aerohive current or anticipated product offering, and our customers can be confident in our full commitment to them and support for our products”

News Facts

• AirTight Networks has asserted that Aerohive’s innovative Hive Access Point product incorporated WIPS technology that infringes one of AirTight’s patents. The technology – a rarely used feature included in older Aerohive software releases – is not included in any current or anticipated Aerohive product offering.
• All or most Aerohive customers are already running newer software versions without this feature. Any customers still on old releases can readily update their software to remove this feature from their products. Aerohive currently recommends software releases 3.5r5 for AP120s and 4.1r5 and 5.1r4 for all other products.
• In addition to the pending action, Aerohive also intends to pursue a request for reexamination of the AirTight patent by the United States Patent Office, and Aerohive believes that the patent will be determined to be invalid.
• Aerohive’s legal action followed efforts over several months to resolve the dispute with AirTight without litigation.

Comments

“This lawsuit relates to a long-standing disagreement with AirTight over claimed use of its WIPS ‘marker packet’ technology in older software releases,” said Steve Debenham, vice president of legal services, Aerohive. “We do not believe the AirTight lawsuit has any basis in fact, and we believe the AirTight patent asserted against us is invalid and not enforceable.”

“Aerohive places high value on business integrity and product innovation,” said David Flynn, chief executive officer, Aerohive Networks. “These are standards to which we hold ourselves personally and against which we measure our success as a company. We believe AirTight’s claims will prove fruitless, and felt we had no choice but to proceed with a legal action to confirm that the AirTight patent is invalid and unenforceable, and that we do not infringe.”

“We believe that this legal action in no way affects use of Aerohive current or anticipated product offering, and our customers can be confident in our full commitment to them and support for our products,” concluded Flynn.

About Aerohive Networks

People want to work anywhere; on any device, and IT needs to enable them -- without drowning in complexity or compromising on security, performance, reliability or cost. Aerohive's mission is to Simpli-Fi these enterprise access networks with a cloud-enabled, self-organizing, service-aware, identity-based infrastructure that includes innovative Wi-Fi, VPN, branch routing and switching solutions.

Aerohive was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. Investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northern Light Venture Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). For more information, please visit www.aerohive.com, call us at 408-510-6100, follow us on Twitter @Aerohive, subscribe to our blog or become a fan on our Facebook page.

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