Defendant's Statements on AirTight Patent Infringement Suit Specious and Misleading, States AirTight

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AirTight^® Networks today has reviewed recent statements in Aerohive's press release responding to AirTight's patent infringement lawsuit against Aerohive, (CV-13-0383), and finds them both specious and misleading.

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For example, it is striking that Aerohive states in its press release that: "[rogue detection is] a rarely used feature." Networking and security professionals know that rogue APs represent one of the greatest threats to network security and hence, rogue AP detection is an absolutely essential feature in enterprise Wi-Fi deployments. Moreover it is imperative to distinguish rogue APs that are attached to the enterprise network versus those that are merely neighboring access points, which is what distinguishes AirTight's patented Marker Packet™ technology from other inferior techniques. This is why Aerohive included AirTight's patented technology in Hive APs to be able to differentiate its product offering.

AirTight alleges Aerohive provided infringing rogue detection functionality based on AirTight's patented Marker Packet technology to all its customers for a substantial period of time and failed to take sufficient action to stop customers from continuing to use older versions of its software even after claiming to have disabled this rogue detection capability. This results in substantial liability, for which Aerohive needs to compensate AirTight.

Aerohive has now also stated that, "all or most Aerohive customers are already running newer software versions without this feature." This implicitly acknowledges that Aerohive sold its product with infringing functionality and also confirms that Aerohive knows that some of its customers are currently using AirTight's rogue detection technology. Aerohive is only now notifying its customers to upgrade to newer versions of its software despite being notified of its infringing activity over a year ago. It is not adequate for Aerohive to simply release new software versions, while continuing to support its infringing product. It needs to establish that each and every customer has upgraded to the new version. Any deployment still running older software constitutes ongoing infringement.

Aerohive's product literature has elaborately described how it goes about detecting "on-network" rogue APs, which is squarely within the scope of the AirTight patent. In light of this self-admission in its own product literature, the posture of non-infringement is without merit.

With respect to Aerohive's baseless claim of invalidity, AirTight notes that its U.S Patent No. 7,339,914 was duly granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a government agency, and is fully valid and enforceable. It is standard practice for infringers to try to invalidate a patent for which they have been cited in order to delay the proceedings in the courts. AirTight's patent is rock solid and AirTight is confident that although Aerohive may delay the proceedings, ultimately it will not be able to escape liability for infringement.

About AirTight WIPS and Secure Wi-Fi

AirTight has been a long-time market leader in wireless security and is now a leading innovator in the exploding market for cloud-managed Wi-Fi. AirTight WIPS™ established its industry leadership position by delivering, for the first time, the key elements of an effective wireless intrusion prevention system:

• detecting and correctly classifying wireless threats – to catch all threats, while minimizing false alarms
• preventing (multiple, simultaneous) wireless threats – while continuing to scan for new ones
• accurately locating the wireless threats on a floor map – so they can be removed

AirTight holds multiple patents that cover technologies useful for implementing these functionalities, which are fundamental to wireless intrusion prevention. These patented capabilities are included in AirTight's products such as AirTight WIPS™, AirTight Cloud Services™, and AirTight Wi-Fi™.

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.

AirTight is a registered trademark of AirTight Networks, Inc. AirTight Networks, the AirTight Networks logo, AirTight WIPS, AirTight Wi-Fi, AirTight Cloud Services and Marker Packet are trademarks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Airtight Networks