Palo Alto Networks Faces $151.5M Verdict In Patent Lawsuit, Plans Post-Trial Actions: Report

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW shares are edging higher in the premarket session on Friday.

The company has been reportedly instructed to pay $151.5 million to Centripetal Networks following a jury’s determination that the security giant violated multiple patents, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The ruling, issued on Wednesday in the Eastern District of Virginia federal court, granted Centripetal approximately $37.9 million for each of the four patents that Palo Alto Networks was deemed to have violated, the report read.

Centripetal, based in Reston, Virginia, filed a lawsuit against Palo Alto Networks in 2021, claiming that components of the Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity firm’s Cortex platform and Next-Generation Firewall product violated its patents related to technology designed to identify and prevent hackers from infiltrating computer networks, it added. 

The disputed technology involves logging, inspecting, and filtering data packets based on a set of rules to distinguish legitimate traffic from malicious access.

“We respectfully disagree with the jury’s decision, which we believe is contrary to both the law and the extensive evidence we presented at trial,” a spokesperson for Palo Alto Networks told the WSJ.

The company intends to pursue remedies through post-trial motions.

In December, Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO emerged victorious in a legal battle as a federal judge in Virginia dismissed patent infringement claims made by cybersecurity company Centripetal Networks in a multi-billion-dollar dispute centered on network security technology.

Read Next: Cisco Dodges A Legal Bullet: Court Reportedly Rejects Centripetal’s Patent Infringement Claims

Price Action: PANW shares are trading higher by 0.43% to $339.97 premarket on the last check Friday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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