Centripetal’s Recusal Motion ‘Frivolous,’ Patent Board Says

Centripetal Networks Inc. lost its bid to halt an administrative tribunal’s trial into the validity of one of its patents over a patent judge’s ownership of Cisco Systems Inc. stock.

In its ruling against Centipetal on Friday, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board noted that Cisco wasn’t a party in the proceeding at the time of the patent judge’s involvement in the high-stakes case.

Centripetal originally won a $1.9 billion verdict in federal court against Cisco in 2020 for infringement of US Patent No. 9,917,856, which covers rule-based network-threat detection for encrypted communications, and four other patents. That victory ...