Symantec, Microsoft Resolve Storage Dispute

Microsoft and Symantec have resolved a two year-old dispute over Veritas storage technology included in Windows.

Microsoft and Symantec have asked a Federal court to dismiss a two year-old lawsuit storage technologies incorporated into Windows.

Symantec sued Microsoft back in 2006, accusing the Redmond software giant of misappropriating the company’s VolumeManager server management and storage technology from Veritas, which Symantec acquired in 2004. The suit sought damages and an injunction against the release of Windows Vista until all Symantec intellectual property could be removed from Vista; Symantec also claimed Microsoft didn’t have a license to use the technology in Windows Server 2003. Microsoft said it had acquired a license to the technology in in 2004, prior to Symantec’s acquisition of Veritas; Microsoft had previously licensed VolumeManager from Veritas in 1996 for use in Windows Server 2000.

Terms of the companies’ new agreement on volume management technologies were not disclosed, but both described the arrangement as “extending technical cooperation” on volume management technology. “This agreement will produce significant benefits for our many mutual customers using mission-critical storage software technologies,” the companies said in a joint statement.