Fortinet’s Security Patent Claims Against Rival Live Another Day

A federal judge in California narrowed Fortinet Inc.‘s patent suit against a rival cybersecurity firm, while warning he might nix the remaining patent claims at a future juncture in the case.

Fortinet sued Forescout Technologies Inc. in 2020 for alleged patent infringement, and Forescout countered at several different stages of the four-year old case that the asserted patents are invalid because they cover abstract ideas not eligible for patent protection. Judge Edward M. Chen’s latest ruling in the case agreed in part with Forescout, but he said eight patent claims survived, for the time being.

“The Court reasserts its ...