Israeli company Orca Security has filed a suit demanding that Israeli rival Wiz is prohibited from selling its products, which Orca claims violate its patents.
Orca Security, which has developed a platform for cloud security, is suing rival unicorn Wiz, which was founded by former Microsoft employees including CEO Assaf Rappaport, formerly CEO of Microsoft Israel.
In the suit filed in the Delaware court in the US, Orca Security claims that Wiz built its business based on the knowhow infrastructure that it had first developed and in this way intentionally violated its IP.
As part of the lawsuit, Orca is demanding that Wiz halt offering all the products and services that infringe its IP and in addition pay it financial compensation on Wiz’s profits for using its patents.
Orca: Wiz hired the same lawyers that filed our patents
At the heart of its suit, Orca Security claims, “Wiz built its business based on a simple business plan: to copy Orca.” Orca charges that Wiz has focused over the years on copying its technology and not developing its own innovations. The lawsuit also details that Wiz’s conduct allegedly included, in addition to copying its technology, copying marketing materials, and hiring the same lawyers that worked on registering its patents. In addition, Orca claims that a late patent filed by Wiz in December 2020, is very similar to Orca’s patent filed in 2019, with both patents filed by the same lawyer.
In recent weeks, Orca has received final approval from the patent registrar in a process that began in 2019, and it is now filing the lawsuit against Wiz for infringing its patent.
Orca Security, which was founded in 2019, has developed side-scanning technology for securing an enterprises assets in the cloud. When it was founded, the company began taking steps to protect the technology it had developed by registering patents. At that time Wiz’s founders were still employed at Microsoft.
Wiz, which was founded in March 2020, raised $300 million in February at a company valuation of $10 billion. At the time Rappaport insisted he would not bring the money into Israel “due to the judicial overhaul.”
Orca Security said, “Orca does not comment in the media on the lawsuit it has filed.”
Wiz said, “We were surprised to discover Orca’s groundless claims through the media. Instead of coping with competition and winning the trust of customers, it seems that the company is taking the desperate step of a lawsuit.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 12, 2023.
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