Yeah, file a suit that not only seeks damages but seeks to block the production of Windows Vista?
Symantec Seeks Injunction To Block Windows Vista
By Walaika K. Haskins
May 19, 2006 11:30AM
"Our suit was filed as a last resort to protect our intellectual property that was misappropriated by Microsoft," said Chris Paden, a Symantec spokesperson, in a statement.
Symantec has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the software giant of misusing its intellectual property. The suit, filed on Thursday in Seattle, also claims that Microsoft violated a 1996 licensing agreement for Symantec's Volume Manager storage technology.
Symantec is seeking an unspecified amount of damages as well as an injunction barring Microsoft from using the technology. If the injunction is granted, it could block the sale of Redmond's next-generation operating system, Windows Vista.
"Our suit was filed as a last resort to protect our intellectual property that was misappropriated by Microsoft," said Chris Paden, a Symantec spokesperson, in a statement.
Storage Issue
The suit primarily involves the Volume Manager technology that enables operating systems to store and manipulate large quantities of data. Symantec acquired Volume Manager during its takeover of Veritas Software.
In 1996, Microsoft purchased a license from Veritas for Volume Manager and subsequently used it in Windows 2000. According to Syamntec, the technology also was used in the development of Windows Server 2003.
Symantec maintains that the intellectual-property violations and breaches of contract began after the introduction of Windows 2000. The company claims the licensing agreement prohibited Microsoft from using the technology in any product that would compete against Veritas.
Windows Server 2003 and Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows are competing products.
The complaint also claims that Microsoft violated the licensing agreement by using the volume-management software in Windows Vista.
'Narrow Disagreement'
As for Microsoft, the company contends that it has done nothing wrong, claiming that the lawsuit "stems from a very narrow disagreement over the terms" of the 1996 contract.
According to Microsoft, it signed a deal to purchase the intellectual-property rights pertaining to the data-storage technology from Veritas in 2004.
Microsoft claims the purchase was made under provisions of the original 1996 license that "ultimately gave Microsoft the option to buy out the rights to Veritas' code and intellectual property rights" and therefore gave the company the ability to rewrite or develop the technology as it sees fit.
"We have gone to great lengths [to] ensure that our volume-management functionality continues to work side-by-side with Veritas' products," Microsoft said.
Each company has expressed confidence in winning the court battle. In the meantime, as the case works its way through the legal system, the companies said that they will continue to work closely with one another, as usual.
I think the executives at Symantec are going to start dying mysterious deaths.
