United States: Server Security Campaign Sees First Affirmative Suit

Computer Protection IP, LLC (CPIP) has filed its first affirmative lawsuit, accusing New Dream Network (DreamHost) (2:17-cv-08858) of infringing a single server security patent. The new complaint targets the DreamHost Cloud System's use of virtual machines to provide "full network virtualization" for customers of its DreamCompute product. In February 2016, Intel and McAfee brought a Northern District of Georgia action seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement of the same patent by Intel's Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) and Cloud Integrity Technology (based on TXT), and Supermicro filed a similar action in the Northern District of California. CPIP's affirmative suit was filed in the Central District of California.

The patent asserted (8,468,591) issued in June 2013, and rights in the patent were assigned to CPIP from its sole named inventor, Ariel Silverstone, the month before, in May 2013. Silverstone holds himself out as a vice president (of "Security Strategy, Privacy, and Trust") with GoDaddy. A round of assertion letters triggered the 2016 declaratory judgment actions; those letters, attached to plaintiffs' complaints, tout Silverstone's past work experience with Microsoft, Cisco, Expedia, and Symantec. The Supermicro suit was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice within a couple of months of filing, long enough for Supermicro to file an amended complaint seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement by the OpenStack Foundation's OpenStack after CPIP appeared to back away from allegations against Intel's TXT. The Intel/McAfee case persisted through dismissal without prejudice in January 2017, after the parties resolved their dispute.

The '591 patent claims priority to October 2006 based on the filing of multiple provisional applications. Prosecution of a related application, filed in November 2015 and published in March 2016, continues before the USPTO. CPIP was formed in Georgia in January 2012. Disclosures filed in court have identified only the parties as having an interest in the outcome of the litigation. 12/8, Central District of California.

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