Security firm Symantec has requested a U.S. court to prohibit Microsoft from developing Windows Vista, while Google Suggest has been accused of facilitating piracy. Meanwhile, in response to a lawsuit from Creative, Apple has counter-sued the Singapore-based music player manufacturer.
Symantec has demanded that Microsoft remove Veritas storage technology from products such as Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Vista, and “Longhorn” Windows Server. In August 1996, Veritas signed an agreement allowing Microsoft to use its management technology in the Windows NT operating system version. However, Symantec acquired Veritas for $10.2 billion last year.
The security firm claims that its software has been “illegally used,” while Microsoft contends that it has full rights to implement Veritas technology because it purchased the intellectual property rights from Veritas in 2004.
This lawsuit poses a risk of delaying the release date of Windows Vista, which is scheduled to be announced in January 2007.
Meanwhile, Belgian company ServersCheck has filed a complaint stating that search terms in Google Suggest could direct users to pages containing illegal software.
Whenever users type keywords into the Google Suggest program, the toolbar automatically displays a series of related suggested terms. When the term “ServersCheck” is entered, Google suggests terms such as “serverscheck crack“, “serverscheck pro crack“, and “serverscheck keygen” (crack, generate serverscheck keys).
According to Maarten Van Laere, CEO of ServersCheck, the American search service needs to modify these suggested terms since 93% of customers visiting the company’s website do so through the popular search tool Google. Google lawyer Trevor Callaghan affirmed that they have also blocked some sensitive terms in their service.
Earlier this week (May 15), the world’s second-largest music player manufacturer, Creative, filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, accusing Apple of violating one of their patents. Creative has requested the court to order Apple to cease production and sale of the popular iPod music player.
On the same day, Apple immediately filed a lawsuit against Creative in federal court in Wisconsin, asserting that this Asian company has violated four of Apple’s intellectual property patents.
“We voluntarily organized negotiations to seek a mutually beneficial solution. However, during those meetings, Apple never mentioned the four patents they are using to sue us,” said Phil O’Shaughnessy, spokesperson for Creative.
T.N.
