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InterTrust Says It Owns DRM, Sues Microsoft

Posted by timothy on from the we-own-it-all dept.

Rinisari writes "Fortune.com has a story about Santa Clara-based InterTrust Technologies is claiming that their suite of 26 issued patents and 85 pending patents covers digital rights management technology currently in use by Microsoft. InterTrust is seeking an injunction barring distribution of about 85% of Microsoft's product line, including WindowsXP, OfficeXP, and Xbox. Slashdot previously mentioned InterTrust when Sony and Philips announced they were attempting to buy ( and still are attempting to buy) the DRM outfit."

1 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. They're both evil, but... by Longing · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a former Intertrust employee, maybe I can shed some light on this.

    There are a lot of comments stating that Intertrust had nothing more than a patent portfolio. As someone who ran Intertrust's product live on the internet for demos and trials, I can attest that that is not true. Intertrust provided SDKs to companies interested in DRM technology, and we had an in-house product showing one possible implementation. The product was real.

    Second of all, this lawsuit has been in the works for years. I heard about it in mid-2000 when I worked there, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were working on this in 1999. From my understanding, it came about from ITRU's talks with Microsoft, which resulted in Microsoft putting out white papers on DRM technology that looked amazingly like ITRU's white papers, except with the ITRU logos replaced with Microsoft logos. Really. I expect a decision in ITRU's favor, which will be stuck in the appellate courts for approximately eternity.

    Anyway, Microsoft is evil, and perhaps ITRU is evil if you don't like patents, but there are plenty of good uses for DRM (think medical records), and anytime someone can stick it to Microsoft, they should.

    Cheers!