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IBM is facing a US$6 million patent-related lawsuit from Harry & David, an Internet retailer that was sued because it used an IBM e-commerce system that allegedly contained technology patented by two other companies.
The US-based Harry & David, an IBM customer since 1991, purchased WebSphere and Net Commerce software to create an Internet-based catalog used to sell its products. IBM knew these products contained technology patented by Charles E. Hill & Associates as well as NCR, but failed to notify Harry & David or defend the company when it was ultimately sued by Hill, Harry & David alleged in a complaint filed on February 26 in US District Court.
The retailer says IBM continued to sell upgrades of the e-commerce system to Harry & David as recently as 2005, despite knowing that Hill and NCR might demand payment from Harry & David for using unlicensed technology. Ultimately, NCR notified Harry & David that its use of the e-commerce software infringed on NCR patents in June 2005, and Harry & David was forced to purchase a license to use the technology, the company states in court documents. Then, in June 2007, Hill sued Harry & David in a Texas court and the company was forced to pay a settlement.
"Despite IBM's knowledge that its infringement could subject Harry and David to claims for patent infringement, and despite its knowledge that Hill in fact intended to sue IBM's customers for their use of E-commerce Programs, IBM took no action to protect Harry and David from Hill's lawsuit or to inform Harry and David of the potential of a Hill suit," the retailer claims.
IBM spokesman Fred McNeese said "we have no comment" and said he didn't know when IBM might file an official response in court. Harry & David asked for at least $US6 million on seven claims for relief, and has demanded a jury trial.
The Harry & David suit isn't the only legal trouble faced by IBM this month.
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Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
Computerworld Live Podcast #96: Security at the Edge 11/06/2008 09:22:22
CW Live speaks with Amol Mitra, HP ProCurve Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Today's topic: how enterprises are starting to shift away from simply controlling security via server logins, firewalls and moving to more adaptive security frameworks. - +
Data Management Edition #10: Multi-Petascale Systems 02/05/2008 09:12:33
This week we look at sustainability and the development of multicore technologies to build multi-petascale systems. - +
IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
This week CW Live presents a case study on how to poison the notorious Storm botnet . Plus we take a look at Cisco's plans for Ironport. - +
IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
Vendors bow to end user pressure to improve product security, and we take a look at the latest concepts shaping the cyber-battlefield of the future.
F-Secure achieves excellent results in Internet security suite comparison 2008-10-10 14:37:00+10
M2M Connectivity announces the new Sierra Wireless MC8792V embedded module for 900 MHz 3G/HSPA networks 2008-10-10 08:51:00+10
Pitney Bowes MapInfo Launches New Version of AnySite 2008-10-10 05:58:00+10
IOGEAR Gears Up in Australia 2008-10-09 20:18:00+10
Internet Service Providers offer new unlimited Online Backup from F-Secure 2008-10-09 19:42:00+10
Choices in Storage Architecture for Oracle Environments
Database systems have always been at the core of the IT landscape. Not only is storage an increasingly large cost component of database investments, but storage architecture can significantly and directly impact the performance, availability, and recovery of data. Read on to explore the interaction between Oracle databases and EMC and Network Appliance storage architectures.
