Webroot (as patent holder) and its ultimate corporate parent Open Text (as exclusive licensee) have launched cybersecurity litigation, hitting competitors AO Kaspersky Lab ( 6:22-cv-00243), CrowdStrike ( 6:22-cv-00241), Sophos ( 6:22-cv-00240), and Trend Micro ( 6:22-cv-00242) with separate Western District of Texas complaints. Six Webroot patents are asserted against each defendant, with a seventh in suit against only Sophos. Targeted are various Internet security, malware detection, and/or endpoint protection offerings provided by each of the defendants.
Currently available USPTO records indicate that Webroot holds around 90 US patents, with those appearing in the company's new West Texas complaints apparently the first to be litigated. The six patents (8,418,250; 8,726,389; 9,578,045; 10,257,224; 10,284,591; 10,599,844) asserted against all of the defendants include what Webroot and Open Text characterize as "Advanced Malware Detection Patents" (the '250 and '389 patents, further described as "generally disclos[ing] and claim[ing] systems and processes related to real-time and advanced classification techniques for as-yet unknown malware") and as "Forensic Visibility Patents" (the '045 and '224 patents, further described as "generally directed to providing forensic visibility into computing devices in a communication network by analyzing network events and creating audit trails").
Per the plaintiffs, the '591 patent "describes and claims an 'anti-exploit' technique to prevent undesirable software and/or other computer exploits from executing", while the '844 patent "addresses and improves upon conventional approaches to malware detection in computer networks and computer network operation". The patent asserted against only Sophos (9,413,721) is described as "directed to improved techniques for detecting and classifying malware, a technological problem fundamentally and inextricably associated with computer technology and computer networks", the latter characterization, as well as additional descriptive language for this and others of the asserted patents perhaps included as a shield against any Alice challenge.
Carbonite acquired Webroot in 2019, just before Carbonite was acquired by Open Text, at the end of that same year. (Webroot provides "Webroot, Inc." as its corporate name, indicating that it is registered to conduct business in Texas. A Webroot Inc., formed in Colorado using that same name, is so registered.) This campaign appears to be the first in which Webroot appears a plaintiff, although Open Text, Carbonite, and Webroot have previously been sued (multiple times) by NPEs.
Open Text and Carbonite are currently embroiled in litigation against Hyland Software (d/b/a Alfresco Software), together with Blue Fish and Seilevel, in both the Central District of California and the Western District of Texas. There, District Judge David O. Carter has had to sever one case into separate actions to accommodate a problem with venue in Central California after Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright transferred a suit there last fall (in a sealed order). Substantively, the litigation has entered claim construction.
Back in the new West Texas cases, Open Text and Webroot are represented by King & Spalding LLP. They have been assigned to Judge Albright as well. 3/4, Western District of Texas.
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