Symantec Sues Microsoft Over Vista Tech

Computer security firm Symantec has filed suit against Microsoft, seeking a halt to Windows Vista and saying Redmond has stolen their intellectual property.

Software developer Symantec, known for its security and utility software as well as swallowing up worthy businesses and software products, has filed suit against Microsoft in an effort to stop development and eventual sale of Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.

According to Symantec, Microsoft has misappropriated intellectual property which became Symantec’s when it bought security developer Veritas in 2004. The suit seeks financial damages and an injunction against the further development and eventual sale of Windows Vista until all Symantec intellectual property is removed from the operating system.

Symantec’s VolumeManager server management product is at the heart of the dispute: it enables server administrators to remotely monitor server status, as well as automate maintenance tasks and partition volumes. Microsoft licensed VolumeManager from Veritas in 1996 for eventual use in Windows 2000.

Symantec claims Microsoft never acquired a license to use the product in Windows Server 2003, and is therefore illegally competing with Symantec’s own Storage Foundation for Windows. Symantec says Microsoft is incorporating Symantec’s intellectual property into Windows Vista client and server products.

For its part, Microsoft characterizes the dispute as a "very narrow disagreement" over the terms of the 1996 contract, and claims it purchased the rights to Veritas’s code and intellectual property in 2004, prior to the company’s acquisition by Symantec.

One has to believe the companies tried to settle this issue before taking the matter to court; the open question is whether litigation might (further) delay the release of Windows Vista.