Forwarded From: "Spencer, Will" <wspencer@DMWGroup.com>
(contributed by Kathy Ivens, updatenews@ivens.com)
* PATENT SUIT FILED OVER SECURITY SOFTWARE: ACCUSATIONS FLY IN BOTH
* DIRECTIONS
Last week, Network Associates (NA) brought suit against Internet Security
Systems (ISS) for patent infringement, claiming that the ISS RealSecure
product violates a patent owned by NA. The products NA claims the patent
covers are the NA CyberCop tools included in Net Tools Secure. The merger
of Network General and McAfee Associates created NA.
I spoke with Patrick Taylor, director of strategic marketing for ISS,
who said the lawsuit is without merit. He accused NA of using the suit to
retard the growth of ISS and hinted that ISS is considering countersuits.
Taylor said that before NA filed the suit, ISS President and CEO Tom
Noonan received a call from an institutional investor, who reported that
William Larsen (CEO of NA) had publicly stated in a meeting of investors
that he was filing the suit. Taylor said the caller quoted Larsen as
saying, "That should slow down their sales." Taylor said the caller
expressed outrage about Larsen's use of such tactics.
Taylor continued that ISS is familiar with the patent NA cited in the
suit, which was originally held by Haystack Labs. Trusted Information
Systems (TIS) purchased Haystack, and NA subsequently purchased TIS.
"We're comfortable and confident that there is no case of intellectual
property infringement," Taylor said. He added, "We never got a phone call.
[NA] went straight to court. They've done this before; they're fairly fond
of using the courts for business tactics."
"When you're the leader in a fast-growing market, other companies try to
bully their way into your space," Taylor said. "They use heavy- handed
tactics instead of competing effectively with products and customer
satisfaction. We feel like David in a David and Goliath battle." (In fact,
ISS is not a David in this field; the company enjoys the largest market
share.)
Taylor expressed optimism that the court will recognize the suit's lack
of merit. He declined to be more specific about the nature of any
countersuits ISS was considering because of Larsen's alleged public
statements.
Art Wong, who is the director of intrusion protection at NA, denied that
Larsen made the statements that the institutional investor alleged. "It's
completely untrue. [Larsen] said nothing to that effect," Wong told me,
adding, "I don't know where they got their information."
Wong insists that NA's lawsuit is nothing more than a normal desire to
protect a patent. "We have a whole suite of products; this patent affects
a small portion. The CyberCop suite is just a part of our Net Tools Secure
suite, and CyberCop Network is the product that has to do with this
patent. It sells well, and in fact the whole Cybercop suite has been
accepted very favorably. It's really just a matter of protecting our
intellectual property."
Wong stated that he is sure the technology used by RealSecure is the
same technology that is protected by the patent. He added that he has no
way of knowing whether ISS knew about the patent when it introduced
RealSecure, but he said he'd leave that to the courts to decide.
"We've long been known as an innovator, and that's a position we have to
protect," Wong told me. The suit asks for treble damages for any willful
infringement of the patent, and also asks the court to provide injunctive
relief by stopping the manufacture and sale of RealSecure.
The Federal District Court for the Northern District of California has
not yet set a date for the courtroom drama to begin. Stay tuned.
-o-
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Received on Tue Jul 21 17:13:57 1998