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20+ Companies Sued Over OS Permissions Patent

Posted by timothy on from the advancing-the-useful-arts-and-sciences dept.

freemywrld writes "According to the article on Ars Technica, Microsoft, Symantec and 20 other companies are being sued over patents covering 'systems for governing application and data permissions, as well as ensuring application integrity.' The patents were granted in the 90's to the Information Protection and Authentication of Texas (IPAT). From the article: 'A response from any of the defendants is still forthcoming, and it is unclear whether the authentication and permissions systems that IPAT's patent describes are precluded by prior art. Even if IPAT has a leg to stand on in court, however, it certainly didn't take the easy route to recovering any damages by suing 22 companies.'"

4 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. The defendants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The lawsuit details are at
      http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit.asp?id=43183

    In particular, the 22 defendants are

      Symantec Corp.
      Microsoft Corp.
      AVG Technologies USA, Inc.
      CA, Inc.
      Check Point Software Technologies, Inc.
      Comodo Group, Inc.
      ESET, LLC
      F-Secure, Inc.
      iolo technologies, LLC
      Kaspersky Lab, Inc.
      McAfee, Inc.
      MicroWorld Technologies, Inc.
      NetVeda, LLC
      Norman Data Defense Systems, Inc.
      Novell Inc.
      PC Tools, Inc.
      PWI, Inc.
      Sophos, Inc.
      Sunbelt Software, Inc.
      Trend Micro Incorporated
      Velocity Micro, Inc.
      Webroot Software, Inc.

  2. Re:Location, location, location by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me guess -- this was filed in the Eastern Texas District, right?

    "IPAT, which apparently purchased these patents from their listed inventor of Addison M. Fischer, filed its complaint in the Eastern District of Texas on December 30, 2008"

  3. Re:I'm Scared by ThreeGigs · · Score: 5, Informative

    I just entered "chmod 755" on a directory so other users could not modify my data. When can I expect the cease and desist order?

    You haven't infringed the patent.

    Now, if you want to infringe the patent, you'd have to tell us the command you could issue to allow any program except say, GIMP, from accessing your data. This is 'program access', not 'user access'.

  4. 13 year delay == no patent claim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently, a six year delay negates patent protection (the patentee has "unreasonably and inexcusably" delayed prosecution) under the same laches idea as made above.

    Enforcement Laches does not require detrimental reliance. However, the patentee must be shown to have "unreasonably and inexcusably" delayed bringing suit and that the alleged infringer subsequently suffered material prejudice. A six year delay creates a presumption of laches.

    Patent Law Blog (Patently-O): Laches and Equitable Estoppel.