This case involves a patent that was issued to the plaintiff in the early 2000’s for controlling and mediating access to the internet from private computer networks. The patent described a number of different features that enabled network administrators to control the kind of content users on their private network would have access to, manipulating firewall-to-firewall encrypted settings as well as a number of cyber security features that prevented malicious user actions from penetrating the private internal network. Some years later, a competing service emerged offering a product that boasted a number of similar features, a product that was described as a “network traffic and content mediation system.” While some of the methods in which the competing company’s product provided their security services differed from those of the plaintiff company, it was alleged that the overall architecture of the program infringed on the plaintiff’s original patents for the 2000’s, which were still in effect when the competing product was launched.
Question(s) For Expert Witness
1. Please briefly describe your experience and familiarity working with web content filtering, infrastructure, digital forensics, and security.
Expert Witness Response E-090926
I am a Professor and my research is directly focused on web/content filtering. My dissertation was about how to use trust in social media to filter web content, and I have built my own web content filtering systems. All of these were academic projects - I have no commercial interest in this space. I have been a Chair and Advisory Board Member for the ACM Recommender Systems conference, the main academic community that does this kind of filtering. I also study cyber security and am part of a prominent academic cybersecurity organization. I have been an expert on a number of intellectual property-related cases, several of which are patent cases.
Expert Bio
This highly qualified expert has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, as well as a master's in Computer Science, a bachelor's in Computer Science, and bachelor's in Economics from the University of Chicago. She is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Information Studies and Affiliate Professor in the Computer Science Department at a public research university. Her research is focused on web content filtering, personalization, artificial intelligence algorithms, and cyber security, and she has published over 120 scientific papers in these areas. The expert is an active author, media contributor, and litigation consultant.
About the author
Joseph O'Neill
Joe has extensive experience in online journalism and technical writing across a range of legal topics, including personal injury, meidcal malpractice, mass torts, consumer litigation, commercial litigation, and more. Joe spent close to six years working at Expert Institute, finishing up his role here as Director of Marketing. He has considerable knowledge across an array of legal topics pertaining to expert witnesses. Currently, Joe servces as Owner and Demand Generation Consultant at LightSail Consulting.
