Symantec sues Microsoft | The Coffeehouse

Let the battles begin!

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B74A06C55-9F29-4A59-B69A-F5EAB75D96B6%7D&siteid=google

"....Symantec Corp. said that it filed a lawsuit against Microsoft Corp., alleging the world's largest software firm misappropriated Symantec intellectual property and breached a contract between the two companies."

(Any idea what technology they are talking about ? Its some feature in Vista, is it the TFS? )

Jason Cox

CNet has the full story:
http://news.com.com/Symantec+sues+Microsoft+over+storage+tech/2100-1014_3-6074055.html?tag=nefd.lede

Apparently Microsoft licensed software from Veritas in 1996 and used it in Windows 2000, legally, then Veritas was aquired by Symantec and now Symantec doesnt want Microsoft using it or anything like it in Windows, they want Microsoft to pay for/buy the new Symantec product from my understanding.

amd_duron

That would be volume shadow copy or ntbackup most likely?
I'd expect something from some company on onecare too, the world is sue happy.

Manip

I think it was NTFS -- http://web.archive.org/web/19961230223157/http://veritas.com/

amd_duron

That is NFS, not NTFS Smiley

Manip

amd_duron wrote:

That is NFS, not NTFS

Obviously... But read between the lines... A database file system that increases performance on NT based systems?

DCMonkey

From TFA:
"The complaint involves Symantec's Volume Manager product"

amd_duron

That is odd then, because one of the few items actually on that cache is this:
http://web.archive.org/web/19970221020036/veritas.com/News/microsoft_partnership.html

About the new agreement between MS and Veritas to distribute that.

Xaero_Vincent

I wonder what Microsoft's annual profit margin would be at without consistent lawsuits and EU fines. Perplexed

Regards,
Vincent

DCMonkey

Also from TFA:

Microsoft licensed a "light" version of Volume Manager from Veritas in 1996 and used it in Windows 2000, Schallop said. The Redmond, Wash., company then used it to develop functionality for Windows Server 2003, which competes with Veritas' Storage Foundation for Windows, Schallop said.

...

"The breaches of the agreement and IP violations began after Windows 2000...They were not allowed to use that intellectual property to develop products that compete against Veritas," Schallop said. "They have used our intellectual property in terms of trade secrets and source code to develop competing products."

...

A Microsoft representative confirmed the dispute and the attempts to reach an agreement outside of the courts. The argument stems from a "very narrow disagreement" over the terms of a 1996 contract with Veritas, the representative said in a statement.

"These claims are unfounded because Microsoft actually purchased intellectual property rights for all relevant technologies from Veritas in 2004," the representative said. "We believe the facts will show that Microsoft's actions were proper and are fully consistent with the contract between Veritas and Microsoft."

_____________________________

So they go to court and the judge decides who's right.

rjdohnert

Nothing new, Microsoft gets sued again. Whoopee, they will pay Symantec a couple of billion and Symantec goes away.

SCMcDonnell

I wish someone would give me a couple million dollars to go away.

SM

keeron

Do lawyers charge less during this season? Seems like there's another one (first creative->apple, then this and now apple->creative)

Apple sues iPod rival over patents
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/18/business/ipod.php

Tom Servo

Since Sun introduces ZFS and Apple apparently wants to adopt it, Microsoft has some more stuff to compete against, which gives them an opportunity to throw out the volume manager, too. Apart from feature-lacking annoying dynamic disks, there doesn't seem to be much advantage from that volume manager, anyway.

Sourcecode

The thing that shocked and disappointed me was that MS tried to get patents on the technology which they have no claim on (if in fact the story is correct).

This is just the start. Wait till WPFE and you’ll see more antitrust stuff going on. MS won’t continue distributing the new flash player or it’ll be version 6 not 9 yet they will be integrating the WPFE player. Kind of reminds me of WMP vs. Real. Only Adobe is much, much bigger.

Robert you have the toughest job in the world. Smiley

Guess we’ll have to wait and see. :O

Beetlejuice

from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/legal/05-18-06SymantecStatement.mspx

Microsoft Statement on Symantec’s Complaint

Microsoft has released the following statement regarding a legal filing by Symantec.

REDMOND, Wash., May 18, 2006 – Today’s filing stems from a very narrow disagreement over the terms of a 1996 contract with Veritas to license volume management technology. We worked hard to try to resolve these issues with Symantec, but were not able to reach an agreement. We believe the facts will show that Microsoft’s actions were proper and are fully consistent with the contract between Veritas and Microsoft.

These claims are unfounded because Microsoft actually purchased intellectual property rights for all relevant technologies from Veritas in 2004.

Microsoft first entered into a contract with Veritas in 1996 to license volume management technology. The contract ultimately gave Microsoft the option to buyout the rights to Veritas’ code and intellectual property rights. In 2004, Microsoft exercised that right and purchased the IP rights. Even so, we have gone to great lengths ensure that our volume management functionality continues to works side by side with Veritas’ products.

We value our relationship with Symantec, and we continue to work closely with them on a wide variety of issues. We are confident that our actions are wholly consistent with the legal agreements between Veritas and Microsoft, and that these claims will be shown to be without merit.

rjdohnert

I just hope they dont try to use this to justify another Vista delay.

staceyw

Beetlejuice wrote:

from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/legal/05-18-06SymantecStatement.mspx
Microsoft Statement on Symantec’s Complaint
Microsoft has released the following statement regarding a legal filing by Symantec.
REDMOND, Wash., May 18, 2006 – Today’s filing stems from a very narrow disagreement over the terms of a 1996 contract with Veritas to license volume management technology. We worked hard to try to resolve these issues with Symantec, but were not able to reach an agreement. We believe the facts will show that Microsoft’s actions were proper and are fully consistent with the contract between Veritas and Microsoft.

These claims are unfounded because Microsoft actually purchased intellectual property rights for all relevant technologies from Veritas in 2004.

Microsoft first entered into a contract with Veritas in 1996 to license volume management technology. The contract ultimately gave Microsoft the option to buyout the rights to Veritas’ code and intellectual property rights. In 2004, Microsoft exercised that right and purchased the IP rights. Even so, we have gone to great lengths ensure that our volume management functionality continues to works side by side with Veritas’ products.

We value our relationship with Symantec, and we continue to work closely with them on a wide variety of issues. We are confident that our actions are wholly consistent with the legal agreements between Veritas and Microsoft, and that these claims will be shown to be without merit.

It would seem this will be open and shut if they show up to court with the contract and proof they exercised the option. I get a feeling Symantec is going to loose that one.