By Django Gold

Law360, New York (January 05, 2012, 6:11 PM ET) -- Whirlpool Corp. on Wednesday was hit with the latest patent infringement suit launched by Network Signatures Inc., which accused the home appliance manufacturer of flouting the company's patent for U.S. Navy-developed computer encryption technology.

Whirlpool was sued in California federal court by the Navy's security technology licensee, which claims Whirlpool is infringing Network Signatures' patented encryption methods in its network communications with employees and customers.

The patent-in-suit, U.S. Patent Number 5,511,122, outlines the methodology for a network encryption system that allows secure communications between computers through...