Network-1 Announces Settlement Of Patent Litigation With NEC

NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Network-1 Security Solutions, Inc. (OTC BB: NSSI) announced today that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against NEC Corporation and NEC Corporation of America (collectively, "NEC") pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, for infringement of Network-1's Remote Power Patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,218,930).  NEC was one of 16 defendants named in the litigation.

As part of the settlement, NEC entered into a settlement agreement and non-exclusive license agreement for the Remote Power Patent.  Under the terms of the license, NEC will license the Remote Power Patent for its full term which expires in March 2020, and pay a license initiation fee and quarterly royalties based on its sales of Power over Ethernet ("PoE") products, including those PoE products which comply with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers ("IEEE") 802.3af and 802.3at Standards.  

In September 2011, Network-1 initiated patent litigation against 16 data networking equipment manufacturers in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, for infringement of its Remote Power Patent.  Named as defendants in the lawsuit, excluding related parties, were Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., Allied Telesis, Inc., Avaya Inc., AXIS Communications Inc., Dell, Inc., GarrettCom, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei Technologies USA, Juniper Networks, Inc., Motorola Solutions, Inc., NEC Corporation, Polycom Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., ShoreTel, Inc., Sony Electronics, Inc., and Transitions Networks, Inc.  Network-1 seeks monetary damages based upon reasonable royalties.  In 2012, settlements were reached with defendants Motorola Solutions Inc., Transition Networks, Inc. and GarrettCom, Inc. and on February 12, 2013, Network-1 reached a settlement with Allied Telesis, Inc.

The Remote Power Patent relates to, among other things, delivering power over Ethernet cables to remotely power network connected devices including, among others, wireless switches, wireless access points, RFID card readers, VoIP telephones and network cameras.  In June 2003, the IEEE approved the 802.3af PoE Standard, which led to the rapid adoption of PoE.  The IEEE also approved the 802.3at Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE Plus) Standard, which increased the maximum power delivered to network devices to 40-60 watts from the current 15 watts under the 802.3af Standard.

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