AirTight Networks' Patent Upheld Over Aerohive Networks' Re-exam Challenge

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AirTight Networks announces that the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") denied Aerohive Networks' request to re-examine AirTight's Marker Packet™ patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,339,914). The USPTO examiner determined that Aerohive did not raise a substantial new question of patentability, thus reaffirming the validity of the AirTight patent over Aerohive's contention.

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Aerohive filed its re-examination request to delay AirTight Networks' patent infringement suit against Aerohive, which AirTight filed only after AirTight's sincere efforts to settle this matter amicably failed. After AirTight filed the patent infringement suit to address Aerohive's past and ongoing infringement, Aerohive filed a request with the USPTO to re-examine AirTight's patent on February 15, 2013 (Application No. 90/012,797.) In the decision issued on May 9, 2013, the USPTO summarily rejected Aerohive's contentions and upheld AirTight's patent in its entirety. (Decision dated 05/09/2013 in re: application No. 90/012,797)

Patent re-examination is typically the step that an accused infringer attempts in order to see if the patent can be invalidated and to escape liabilities for infringement. AirTight is confident that any such attempts, now or in future, will be proven futile and eventually Aerohive will be required to compensate AirTight for damages to its business suffered as a result of this patent infringement.

AirTight continues to pursue a leadership strategy in the intellectual property and patent arena and invests enormous resources in R&D to invent and build its unique products. AirTight's innovations are implemented in AirTight Wi-Fi Access and Wireless Intrusion Prevention products for the benefit of its customers. Patents are AirTight's way of ensuring that the technologies that AirTight develops are not copied by others and sold to their customers.

In 2009, Aerohive and AirTight entered into a partnership agreement that was intended to give Aerohive's customers access to AirTight's patented and highly acclaimed wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS). However, AirTight alleges that Aerohive instead mis-appropriated AirTight's patented technology and incorporated it into its own products, including Hive AP's.

About AirTight Networks

AirTight Networks is a global provider of secure Wi-Fi solutions that combine its patented and industry-leading wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS) technology with the next generation cloud-managed, controller-less Wi-Fi architecture. This unified approach allows enterprises for the first time to benefit from Wi-Fi access while concurrently protecting their networks 24/7 from wireless threats at no additional cost. AirTight's customers include global enterprises across virtually all industries and range from those who overlay AirTight WIPS™ on top of other WLAN solutions, to those who leverage the AirTight Cloud Services™ to rollout and manage AirTight Wi-Fi™, WIPS, and regulatory compliance (e.g., PCI) across tens of thousands of locations from a single console. AirTight owns the seminal patents for wireless intrusion prevention technology with 29 U.S. and international patents granted, and more than 20 additional patents pending. For more information, please visit: www.airtightnetworks.com. Follow on Twitter @Airtight.

AirTight is a registered trademark of AirTight Networks, Inc. AirTight Networks, the AirTight Networks logo, and Marker Packet are trademarks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE AirTight Networks