US software company Adobe Systems is suing rival company,
Macromedia, for alleged infringement of a patent for its user
interface. It sought a court order yesterday to stop the launch of
the Flash 5.0 program which is planned for September.11 Aug 2000
Adobe said in its lawsuit that has owned a patent for so-called “tabbed palette” technology and has done so since 1996. The technology enables computer users to work with groups of data in the same area of a monitor display. It claims that this is used in Macromedia’s Flash 5.0.
Adobe says that it warned its smaller rival against the infringement but that Macromedia continued to use the technology without licence. In a statement, Bruce Chizen, president of Adobe, said: “Adobe will not be the research and development department for its competitors.” Macromedia denies the infringement.