Adobe, one of the world’s largest software companies, sued its smaller rival in August 2000 for infringement of a patent which covers Adobe's “reconfigurable tabbed palette patent,” a method of displaying and working with multiple sets of information in the same area of the computer screen.
Macromedia released a statement saying that it “expects no material impact from this judgment on the company's financial condition or market leadership.”
Rob Burgess, chairman and CEO of Macromedia, added: "It is unfortunate, and we believe wrong, that Adobe has chosen this field to compete. Ultimately, it is our customers, and particularly our mutual customers, that will be harmed."