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Orca, Wiz End Dueling Lawsuits Over Cloud Security Patents

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Patent Board Decision Invalidating 3 Orca Patents Weakens Case, Leads to Dismissal

Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) •
January 7, 2026    

Orca, Wiz End Dueling Lawsuits Over Cloud Security Patents

Orca Security and Wiz agreed Tuesday to dismiss all claims in their dueling patent infringement lawsuits and not bring these claims in the future.

See Also: Alleviating Compliance Pain Points in the Cloud Era

The cloud security rivals agreed to each bear their own legal costs and attorneys’ fees weeks after the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board determined three of the six patents Orca accused Wiz of infringing upon weren’t actually patentable. Orca sued Wiz for infringing on six patents related to cloud security, while Wiz alleged Orca infringed on five of its patents, and accused Orca of copying its features.

“All claims and defenses asserted by Orca against Wiz in this action and all claims and defenses asserted by Wiz against Orca in this action are hereby dismissed with prejudice,” the parties wrote Tuesday in a two-page stipulation of dismissal. “All parties shall bear their own costs and fees including attorneys’ fees.”

Orca in July 2023 first accused Wiz of violating patents associated with securing virtual machines and virtual cloud assets at rest against cyberthreats. In June 2024, Wiz denied violating any of Orca’s patents and said instead that Orca infringed upon patents related to holistic cloud security tools, attack path analysis, AI cybersecurity risk detection and the use of large language models for incident response (see: Wiz Counters Orca Security’s Patent Infringement Allegations).

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Neither Orca nor Wiz responded to Information Security Media Group requests for comment.

Patent Board Decision Weakens Case

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Dec. 8, 2025, found all challenged claims in Orca’s asserted patents unpatentable since the claims lacked novelty or were obvious over prior art. Further reviews covering Orca’s additional patents were still pending at that time, with decisions due in early 2026. This result was disclosed to the court in a joint status filing by Orca and Wiz on Dec. 15, 2025.

Wiz challenged the validity of all six asserted Orca patents through the inter partes review process, and PTAB agreed to institute reviews for three of them on Dec. 9, 2024. Orca filed petitions against several Wiz patents, including those covering Wiz’s AI-based threat detection and cloud risk visualization tools. On Jan. 16, 2025, the court granted a request to stay the litigation, pending resolution of all petitions.

“Both sides agree that a stay is appropriate,” Orca wrote on Jan. 13, 2025. “In fact, Orca has been acting as if a stay is already in place.”

Leading up to the stay, both Orca and Wiz filed a joint letter on Jan. 13, 2025, outlining their respective positions on how the stay should be implemented. Wiz sought a broad stay with no new claims allowed during the pause, while Orca wanted flexibility to amend pleadings and re-engage if the PTAB declined to review certain patents. Wiz argued this would turn a full stay into a “partial litigation restart.”

“Wiz compromised to reach agreement on this issue, as both sides are effectively calculating that all six IPRs [reviews] will be instituted,” Wiz wrote on Jan. 13, 2025. “But Wiz cannot agree to Orca’s ‘stop/start’ proposal. The case should be stayed, and Orca is free to move to lift the stay under the parties’ agreed procedure.”

Orca and Wiz Blamed the Other for Missteps

Orca’s initial complaint from July 2023 alleged that Wiz founders had learned of Orca’s architecture during a 2019 presentation at Microsoft – where Wiz’s founders previously worked – and used that information to build a rival product in 2020. The complaint alleged that Wiz built its business by copying Orca and centered around two patents initially, with four more patents later added to Orca’s claims (see: Orca Security Sues Wiz for Allegedly Violating 2 Patents).

“Wiz has built its business on a simple business plan: Copy Orca,” Orca wrote in July 2023. “This copying is replete throughout Wiz’s business and has manifest in myriad ways. In its marketing, Wiz copies Orca’s imagery, its message and even the coffee it uses at trade shows.”

Wiz in June 2024 said it did not infringe on any Orca patents, claimed the company’s asserted patents were invalid, lacking novelty and enforceability, and accused Orca of accessing and retaining Wiz’s confidential materials without authorization. Wiz also pointed to Orca’s voluntary dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit against a former employee as a pattern of aggressive but ultimately baseless litigation tactics.

“Wiz did not choose to bring this litigation, but faced with Orca’s meritless claims, it is now forced to correct the record about Wiz’s innovation, Orca’s copying of Wiz, and Orca’s use of Wiz’s intellectual property,” Wiz wrote in July 2024. “Rather than return or destroy that information, Orca has used that information to bring baseless litigation targeting Wiz, including this case.”

The dismissal comes nearly 10 months after Wiz agreed to be acquired by Google for $32 billion in an acquisition that’s expected to close at some point this year. Acquisitions can spur settlement deals, with Broadcom vowing to provide Zscaler with a patent license, release and covenant not to sue in exchange for a $15 million payment three months after it bought the Symantec Enterprise Security business.

Orca is worth significantly less than Wiz today, with the company most recently disclosing a $1.8 billion valuation in conjunction with an October 2021 Series C funding extension. The company has also fared worse than Wiz from a staffing perspective, with Okta’s headcount dropping nearly 7% from November 2023 to 478 today. Over that same time, Wiz has nearly tripled its headcount to 3,150 employees.





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    References:

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    Understanding cybersecurity is not just for the tech-savvy; it's for everyone. We are all potential targets for cyber threats, and comprehension of basic cybersecurity terminology can make a significant difference in safeguarding ourselves and our digital assets.

    Employing cybersecurity measures also helps to keep your digital data safe. This might include using a VPN, enabling two-factor authentication, or simply being wary of suspicious emails to prevent phishing attacks.

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