Alcatel Units Sue Cisco for Stealing Communications Patents
By Anna Marie Stolley
San Jose, California, June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems Inc. is being sued by two units of Alcatel SA
that claim the No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment is violating patents for data
communications networks and telecommunications technology.
In a lawsuit filed June 1 in federal court in Sherman, Texas, Alcatel USA Inc, a telecommunications unit
of Alcatel, Europe's second-biggest phone-equipment maker, says Cisco is violating its patent for
connecting input and output optical signals on fiber- optic cables.
The lawsuit also contends that Cisco's recently acquired subsidiary, Monterey Networks Inc., raided
Alcatel for personnel, including key employees who have ``intimate knowledge'' of confidential
information regarding Alcatel's products and business. Alcatel claims Cisco stole trade secrets and
copyrighted computer program information.
``Cisco's conduct was knowing, intentional, willful, and deliberate,'' according to the lawsuit, which
requests damages, punitive damages and that a judge order Cisco to stop its allegedly illegal conduct.
In another lawsuit, filed May 31 in federal court in Los Angeles, Alcatel's Calabasas, California-based
Alcatel Internetworking Inc. unit contends Cisco stole several patented inventions for routing
information in communications networks.
Alcatel ``has suffered, is suffering, and will continue to suffer injury and damages for which it is entitled
to relief,'' the unit claims in the lawsuit, which requests damages and that a judge order Cisco to stop
infringing Alcatel's patents.
Officials from the San Jose, California-based Cisco were not immediately available for comment.
Shares of Cisco fell 1 1/8 to 63 1/4 on the Nasdaq Stock Market Alcatel's American depositary receipts,
which represent one ordinary share, rose 5/16 to 61 3/4 on the New York Stock Exchange. |
