US judge blocks Microsofts Chimney feature
Publish date: 20 April 2005
Issue Number: 1077
Diary: Legalbrief eLaw
Category: Intellectual property
A US District Judge has temporarily blocked Microsoft from using the networking feature Chimney in future versions of its Windows operating system, while a lawsuit over a patent owned by Alacritech Inc was pending.
Alacritech claims that Microsoft infringed its SLIC technology, patented in 2001, which is intended to eliminate processing bottlenecks in computer networks, reports the Los Angeles Times. Chimney is to be used in the Longhorn version of the Windows operating system scheduled for release late next year and in other Microsoft server software. Larry Boucher, CE of Alacritech, said that Microsoft had rejected licensing terms and the company was thus forced to sue Microsoft to stop them from continuing to infringe, and inducing other to infringe, on our intellectual property rights, he said. Full Los Angeles Times report
