----------------------------------- aiolos Fri 19 May, 2006 Symantec sues micros0ft ----------------------------------- Symantec's director of legal affairs, Michael Shallop, alleged in an interview this afternoon with TG Daily that Microsoft employed its own programmers to take apart source code from storage virtualization leader Veritas to which Microsoft was not entitled, and then used the information it gleaned from that code to create storage virtualization device drivers for Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and forthcoming versions of Windows Vista and "Longhorn" Server. Symantec merged with Veritas in 2005, and since that time, according to Shallop, attempted to negotiate a new agreement with Microsoft that would have enabled it to use a limited version of Veritas' Volume Manager technology - with appropriate compensation. While Microsoft refrained from stonewalling, he admits, and probably negotiated in good faith, the company used the information it learned to develop a new class of virtualization driver. If Microsoft were to deploy that driver in Windows Vista and "Longhorn," Symantec alleges, its distribution would do serious damage to Symantec's competitive status, as existing agreements explicitly prohibit Microsoft from distributing certain classes of volume manager drivers, Shallop stated. "There are restrictions on their usage and scope of the technology and associated intellectual property provided from Veritas to Microsoft under that agreement," Shallop told TG Daily, "and we have evidence that will show through the court process that they violated the restrictions and scope of those license rights under that agreement, and therefore are infringing and misappropriating certain of Veritas' - now Symantec's - intellectual property." more : h__p://www.tgdaily.com/2006/05/19/symantec_says_microsoft_misappropriated_trade_secrets/