IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last week, asking a judge to invalidate several patents that are the subject of infringement suits filed by WebXchange Inc. against three large companies over their use of Microsoft's Visual Studio development tools.

WebXchange, an online transaction services provider in Menlo Park, Calif., sued Allstate Insurance Co., Dell Inc. and FedEx Corp. last March in federal court in Delaware. The lawsuits, all filed on the same day, claim that some of the online services offered by the three companies violate patents held by WebXchange. For example, WebXchange alleges that FedEx is infringing on three patents in an online system, launched four years ago, that lets customers send print jobs to its Kinko's stores.

Microsoft isn't mentioned in any of the three complaints. But the software vendor said in its lawsuit against WebXchange that the claims against Allstate, Dell and FedEx relate to their use of Visual Studio. Microsoft added that by asking the court in San Francisco to declare WebXchange's patents invalid, it hopes to defend the three sued customers and spare other Visual Studio users from similar legal actions.

Allstate, Dell and FedEx have all sought indemnification from Microsoft since being sued by WebXchange, the software vendor noted in its lawsuit. Microsoft and most other large vendors typically indemnify their customers, so the vendors themselves bear the responsibility for any problems if their products are found to cause legal harm, including patent infringement.

Microsoft claimed that the patents issued to WebXchange were clearly based on existing technologies and thus should be invalidated. It also said that it has tried to discuss the existing infringement lawsuits and any possible future actions with WebXchange but that the latter company has refused to talk.

Neither Microsoft nor WebXchange responded immediately to requests for additional comment on the lawsuits.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Jump to comments

Microsoft

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

2 comments | Add new

See all comments (2) | Add new

White Papers & Webcasts

Moving Beyond Monolithic White Paper
What's next for enterprise application architecture? Learn Now.

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

The ROI of Software-As-A-Service - Forrester Research
Learn if SaaS has a long-term value. Read now.

Virtualize Microsoft Applications on VMware
Register for this live webcast now!

Global at the Core White Paper
Learn the business and technology benefits of Workday's global approach to enterprise applications.

A Unified Approach to Application Performance
Watch this webcast today!

The Workday User Interface White Paper
Read how Workday re-invents the user experience in enterprise applications.

Aligning IT to Business: The Rising Importance of Application Delivery Networks
Application Delivery Networking (ADN) will play a vital role in helping enterprises incorporate strategic technologies to achieve business initiatives.

Measurement Specialties
Download this case study!

Preparing Your Business Services for the Future
Would you trust your network monitoring tools enough to know when something is truly halting a business service?

All White Papers | All Webcasts

Computerworld Reports

Computerworld Technology Briefing: More than Business Value

Computerworld Briefing: Staffing for Intelligence

8 Questions To Ask About Your Intrusion-Security Solution

All Computerworld Reports

Disaster Recovery & Cost Savings Zone
Thousands of customers world-wide have turned to virtualization solutions from Riverbed as a way to reduce costs.