Barracuda battles Trend Micro patent claims
Trend demands licensing for gateway virus scanning idea.
Barracuda Networks has announced it is fighting a legal battle against Trend Micro, who has claimed
US patent rights to the concept of scanning traffic passing through network proxies for malware.
A licensing issue has been running between the two firms since late 2006, when Trend lawyers contacted
Barracuda requesting a licensing deal. Barracuda's use of open-source anti-virus scanner
ClamAV in its gateway products was seen as an infringement of a patent on the idea, held by Trend
since 1995 and apparently covering many forms of malware scanning on files passing through firewalls,
mail servers and other gateway systems.
Barracuda argues that Trend was not the first to think of the idea, and also that as it is not
importing any technology into the US the patent restrictions are invalid anyway. In a strongly worded press release
and a section of the company's website dedicated to fighting the patent claim, Barracuda has announced its
decision to fight the claims, and issued a public request for information on similar products in existence prior to the
patent's filing in 1995, to support its 'prior art' argument.
Barracuda's press release is
here and more detailed legal
arguments here. More commentary from a CNet blogger
is here and coverage on LinuxWorld is
here.
29 January 2008
Tags:
barracuda, clamav, intellectual property, legal, open source, patent, trend micro.
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