Juniper Networks Sues Palo Alto Networks Over U.S. Patents

Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) accused Palo Alto Networks Inc. in a lawsuit of infringing six U.S. patents for firewall technology used to protect communications networks from intrusion.

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, California, is seeking a jury trial, unspecified damages and an order to stop misuse of its inventions, according to the complaint filed today in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

“As a leading high-performance networking company, we will take every appropriate measure to defend and protect our innovation,” David Shane, a Juniper spokesman, said in an e- mail.

Palo Alto networks, based in Santa Clara, California, “was founded by several former high-level employees of Juniper to compete against Juniper,” lawyers for Juniper said in court papers.

“We don’t provide comment on these types of matters,” Mike Haro, a spokesman for Palo Alto Networks, said in a phone interview.

In a statement last week, Haro’s firm said it was named by industry researcher Gartner Inc. as a leader in the rapidly evolving field.

The case is Juniper Networks Inc. v. Palo Alto Networks Inc., 11-cv-1258, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

To contact the reporters on this story: Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware at pmilford@bloomberg.net; Dawn McCarty in Wilmington, Delaware at dmccarty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net