Antivirus Wars Take a Turn As Hilgraeve Sues Its Rivals
Dow Jones Newswires
Adding to the legal battles in the antivirus-software sector, Hilgraeve Inc., a small Monroe, Mich., software company, said Wednesday it sued McAfee Associates Inc. and Symantec Corp. for allegedly infringing on a software patent issued to Hilgraeve in 1994.
Hilgraeve said its patent "covers searching for virus signatures in data that is in transit to automatically inhibit virus infection, such as from files being downloaded from the Internet." Hilgraeve's suit alleges McAfee, of Santa Clara, Calif., and Symantec, of Cupertino, Calif., failed to respond to licensing deals it offered to the firms last year.
Hilgraeve contends that both McAfee and Symantec offer products that automatically inhibit data transfer if a virus signature is recognized in a data stream.
Hilgraeve said the development work behind its patent was done in 1989 and based on International Business Machines Corp. computer-virus data, at a time when there were only 33 known viruses. Hilgraeve has since licensed IBM under its patent.
Several Suits Pending
McAfee and Symantec have pending suits against each other. In the spring, Symantec alleged McAfee infringed Symantec's copyright; Symantec then added new allegations of stolen computer code in July. McAfee then sued Symantec for alleged defamation and trade libel.
Complicating matters, Trend Micro Inc. filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against both companies, claiming the two infringed on Trend Micro's patent for virus-detection techniques used for data carried over the Internet, e-mail and so-called groupware.
Of all the fights, the one between Symantec and McAfee is the most bitter. Symantec alleged that McAfee illegally copied Symantec software that allows personal-computer users to save their data when their machines crash. Both Symantec and McAfee are well known for their antivirus software but recently have branched out into crash-protection programs.
In a separate dispute, McAfee in April claimed that Dr Solomon Group PLC, a British maker of antivirus software, engineered a program that works better when its performance is being tested than it does under normal circumstances. McAfee said Dr Solomon Group's Anti-Virus Toolkit can tell when it is being tested by third-party evaluators like magazines or consultants, and automatically kicks into a "cheat mode." Dr Solomon's denied the charge.
Far From Clear Cut
Most legal battles in the software industry are far from clear-cut. In some cases, juries have concluded that the products of companies accused of infringement didn't meet a test of being "substantially similar" to rival programs. In other cases, courts ruled that there are a limited number of ways for programmers to accomplish certain functions, so similarities are permissible.
Differences among antivirus programs don't last long, and competitors relentlessly hype each kernel of good news about their products and each flaw in those of their rivals.
It's a rough game, and no one plays it with more zeal than William Larson, McAfee's chief executive. Mr. Larson routinely commissions ads and issues press releases accusing competitors of lying and cheating. Earlier this year, he faxed a press release that described Symantec's CEO, Gordon Eubanks, as "once himself an accused felon for trade-secret violations."
The market is worth fighting over. Once largely spread by floppy disks, new strains of destructive computer code now race around the world in infected e-mail and booby-trapped Web sites. As corporations bet heavily on Web-based systems, software that protects against viruses and other security risks has changed from an afterthought to a fundamental part of the information infrastructure.
Symantec has led the market in total antivirus revenue but lags in unit sales behind McAfee. The two have quarreled over how to portray market-share data. |
