Semantics: Symantec sues Microsoft

Symantec asked a U.S. Court to enjoin Microsoft's development of Windows Vista. Symantec alleges that Microsoft is wrongfully incorporating Symantec's Veritas storage technology into its upcoming operating system.

The two software giants are at odds over a 1996 agreement in which Veritas Software granted Microsoft the right to Use Veritas Software's volume management technology in Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. More recently, Symantec now purchased Veritas Software for $10.2 billion dollars.

Symantec claims that Microsoft misappropriated its technology. Symantec even goes as far as to allege that Microsoft committed fraud on the U.S. Patent Office, tricking it into granting Microsoft patents based on Symantec intellectual property. Microsoft claims that it purchased the intellectual property rights to all disputed technologies from Veritas Software in 2004 pursuant to the 1996 agreement. Symantec rebuts saying that the 1996 agreement prevents Microsoft from developing features that compete with Veritas. Of course, Windows Vista allegedly contains several competing features. Symantec and Microsoft have been working to resolve the dispute since 2004 but these efforts failed leading to this suit.