The future of Riverbed's showcase appliance, Steelhead, is uncertain with a ruling from a Delaware court that the network acceleration vendor had infringed on patents held by rival Silver Peak.
"We respectfully disagree with the verdict, and fully expect to prevail before the District Court on post-trial motions," Riverbed said in a statement. The vendor assured that the verdict "will not have any impact on our business or customers".
However, patent law firm Markman Advisers said through its Twitter account that the vendor could be facing an injunction on RiOS running on Steelhead.
Silver Peak agreed with that assessment.
"Silver Peak intends to seek a permanent injunction against the features of Riverbed’s RiOS and Steelhead devices covered by the Silver Peak patents – 'SDR-Adaptive', as well as 'Enhanced Auto-Discovery' when used in combination with 'Full Transparency'," said the Silver Peak statement.
Silver Peak's CEO David Hughes said he was gratified that the decision went in its favour and that "Silver Peak prefers to compete in the marketplace, rather than in the courthouse. But if challenged, we are obviously willing to fight back".
Last month a US investment firm alleged Riverbed misled shareholders and unreasonably ignored buyout offers.
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