Judge Won’t Leave Cisco Patent Case After Stock Discovery (1)

The Virginia federal judge who oversaw a high-stakes bench trial between Cisco Systems Inc. and Centripetal Networks Inc. refused to recuse himself from the case after discovering his wife owned several thousands of dollars worth of Cisco stock.

Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a Friday order he didn’t learn about his spouse’s 2019 stock purchase until early August, when the judge’s assistant was preparing judicial financial disclosures. The shares, which are valued at almost $4,700, have since been placed in a blind trust.

Morgan alerted Cisco and ...