Symantec is seeking damages, and an injunction barring Microsoft from using the volume management technology it acquired from Veritas Operating Corporation. Symantec bought Veritas in July 2005.

Microsoft's new operating system Vista, being rolled out in coming months, is a target. While apparently not seeking an injunction against shipping Vista, Symantec seeks removal of the stolen IP from Vista.

There was a 1996 licensing agreement, transferring technology from Veritas to Microsoft. Symantec claims that what Microsoft got saved them five years of development time.

Microsoft claims that in 2004 they bought the contested IP according to terms of the agreement: "Microsoft exercised that right and purchased the IP rights."

In its complaint, Symantec alleges that Microsoft had five patents issued to it from three inventors who were intimately knowledgeable of Veritas technology while working together under contract. "Microsoft misled the U.S. government and thereby convinced it to issue a patent based on technologies invented by Symantec, and ultimately built portions of its next-generation operating system on this house of cards."

Symantec and Microsoft negotiated this matter for over a year, to no avail. Microsoft. Hitting an impasse, both parties supposedly agreed upon arbitration. That agreement broke down as well; hence Symantec's court action.

For all the steam in the court complaint, gentility reigns for public consumption regarding the matter.

"This is just really an isolated contract dispute on a very old agreement. We think we'll prevail, but in the meantime it's business as usual with Microsoft," chimed Michael Schallop of Symantec.

Microsoft too appears unruffled. "We're confident that our actions are wholly consistent with the legal agreements between Veritas and Microsoft, that these claims will be shown to be without merit, and that today's filing will not impact the development schedule for our products."

Rob Enderle, technology business maven, mused that the action was just Symantec lashing out from the pain of a financial abscess: "Symantec hasn't been doing as well financially of late, and part of their aggressiveness is an attempt to offset growing customer dissatisfaction with products and increasing competition, including that from Microsoft."