Patent injunction knocks Longhorn

Alacritech sued Microsoft in August 2004, alleging that Microsoft’s existing and future operating systems containing the “Chimney” TCP offload architecture use Alacritech’s proprietary SLIC technology. The disputed code, designed to eliminate network processing bottlenecks, crops up in the Scalable Networking Pack for Windows Server 2003 as well as Longhorn. Alacritech argues that Microsoft’s software violates two of its patents relating to scalable networking, US Patent No. 6,427,171 and US Patent No. 6,987,868, both entitled Protocol Processing Stack for use with Intelligent Network Interface Device.

Read about it at Channel Register.