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Injunction Granted Against Microsoft Could Affect Next Windows Release
A U.S. District Court has issued a preliminary injunction against Microsoft pending resolution to allegations that the industry giant's new Chimney technology infringes network acceleration ideas developed by Alacritech Inc. Based in San Jose, California, Alacritech Inc. specializes in developing technology aimed at providing faster and more efficient network systems.
Last week's decision prohibits the manufacture or sale of Microsoft's Chimney technology, which appears on the new Longhorn version of Windows (set to be released in 2006) and the Scalable Networking Pack for Windows Server 2003. Given the heightened standard required to obtain a preliminary injunction, the decision may not bode well for Microsoft in the patent infringement case.
Alacritech Inc. filed an infringement lawsuit against Microsoft on August 11, 2004 claiming that Chimney is based on its own offload technology, known as Session-Layer Interface control or SLIC. The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft acquired the technology when the two companies failed to negotiate a licensing agreement for SLIC in the fall of 2003. Microsoft maintains that Chimney was developed independently by its own engineers.
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