Arista Networks has described its long-standing patent dispute with Cisco as "breathtaking, unprecedented and crazy" in a hearing regarding an antitrust lawsuit against Switchzilla.Arista's lawyer, Matthew Douglas Powers, said the Cisco patents are only applicable to specific parts of Arista's switches and do not Arista to sell Ethernet switch products, according to Law360.
In May, the US International Trade Commission upheld a ruling that Arista Networks had infringed two Cisco Systems patents on networking equipment.
As a result, the federal agency requested an import ban and an order to cease laying off related products. At the time, Arista said the Cisco litigation was part of a wider effort "to preserve its market position at the expense of competition and innovation."
This week's hearing was about Cisco's motion to dismiss Arista's antitrust lawsuit filed last year. Powers claimed that Arista had redesigned its switches and appealed to the ITC's cessation and discontinuance orders to the federal circuit.
Cisco lawyer John Desmarais said the ITC's decision prohibits Arista from making its antitrust claims and described the company's lawsuit as a "knee reaction" to Cisco's patent dispute with the company.
The judge did not rule on the motion to dismiss Arista's antitrust lawsuit but stated that she was persuaded by Cisco's argument and would carefully read ITC's termination and discontinuance order to see if Arista had the shelter of selling switches in the United States.
In April, Arista was cleared by Customs and Border Protection to resume delivering modified products to the United States in a separate patent dispute .
