The injunction was awarded at the behest of data solutions
provider Alacritech, which sued in August last year, alleging that
Microsoft had breached two of the start up's patents relating to
scalable networking.
Of particular concern, says California-based Alacritech, are
Microsoft's existing and future operating systems containing the
"Chimney"
TCP
architecture (Transmission Control
Protocol, which deals with the delivery of data within
networks).
The company complains that it had met confidentially with
Microsoft in 1998 to demonstrate its SLIC technology, which tackles
bottlenecks in system and network processing, and that Microsoft
had asked to see detailed documents relating to the software, with
a view to integrating it into Windows.
But Alacritech alleges that, in 1999, Microsoft ceased further
communications with the company, only to launch its new "Chimney"
technology at the 2003 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.
This technology, says Alacritech, "appears to be close to
Alacritech intellectual property."
"After Alacritech discovered that Microsoft Chimney is based
on intellectual property that we developed, patented and own, we
offered Microsoft a license," said Larry Boucher, president and
CEO
of Alacritech. "Microsoft rejected licensing terms
that would be acceptable to us. We were forced to sue Microsoft to
stop them from continuing to infringe, and inducing others to
infringe, on our intellectual property rights. We are very pleased
with the Court's decision in this matter."
Longhorn had been expected next year.
