Legal Disputes About Storage Set Example

Microsoft and Symantec have settled a fractious patent dispute over storage technology, while Sun has volleyed another motion at NetApp.

As reported in fellow Techweb publication InformationWeek, Microsoft and Symantec yesterday announced an out-of-court settlement of an accusation duel involving storage technology Microsoft licensed from Veritas before that vendor's acquisition by Symantec in 2005.

The lawsuits started in May 2006, when Symantec accused Microsoft of "misappropriating" Symantec's VolumeManager technology and using it in Vista. Microsoft countered that Veritas hadn't sustained its end of the bargain with Microsoft and accused Symantec of grand-standing.

But the two companies buried the hatchet this week, settling the dispute on unspecified terms.

Might NetApp and Sun follow suit in their rancorous, high-profile patent suit?It doesn't look like it. As reported in a separate InformationWeek article today, Sun has launched another motion against NetApp, accusing NetApp of infringing on several of its patents, specifically in NetApp's Onaro SANscreen and NAS Insight storage management packages. Sun's motion reportedly refers to a lack of innovation by NetApp that prompts its heavy use of open source code -- Sun's biggest chestnut. Sun claims "irreparable harm" at the hands of NetApp.

NetApp started the ball rolling in September 2007 with a motion that accused Sun of pinching NetApp intellectual property in ZFS and making it open source.

It would be great to see NetApp and Sun end their dispute as neatly as Symantec and Microsoft have done -- with little impact on customers. Unfortunately, aside from the IP issues involved, both parties have taken the legal action as a soapbox -- Sun, to boast its self-righteous open-source advocacy and NetApp, to push claims of technical superiority.

Both Sun and NetApp have vested interests in taking these positions, because the powers that be in both companies seem to think the litigation pokes at their very corporate identities.

Hopefully, whatever the outcome, the litigation between Sun and NetApp won't affect their customers. They've mutually promised this; let's hope that if they can't settle out of court, they can live up to it.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.