Finjan lawsuit not our doing, say new owners

The anglo-US company that bought out Finjan, M86 Security, has distanced itself from the fractious patent suit enveloping a number of well-known antivirus companies and the company that held on to Finjan's patents, FSI Inc.

Clearly worried about any possible association with what is shaping up to be a contentious case, M86 issued the following statement.

"M86 Security acquired the technology, people and operating assets of Finjan. The ownership of the patents remained with FSI Inc. and M86 acquired a licence to use the patents. The original suit against Secure Computing, now McAfee, we understand is still being pursued by FSI Inc. This recent action appears to be related to new infringement suits," read an email sent to Techworld.

"M86 Security is issuing this statement to clarify that it is not affiliated in any way with the lawsuit recently filed by FSI."

The lawsuit launched by FSI this week, alleges infringements of intellectual property by a range of security companies including, Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, Websense and Webroot Software.

Before its acquisition by M86 Security, Israeli company Finjan had been engaged in a long-running patent suit with Secure Computing, and then with the company that bought Secure Computing in 2008, McAfee.

Given that the original case remained barely resolved between 2006 when it was launched, and 2009, when most of Finjan's assets were bought, the new case could take just as long, by which time ownership of some of the parties could have changed yet again.