Patent injunction could derail Longhorn
11:23AM
A judge has slapped an injunction on Microsoft to prevent it from using TCP technology slated for use in the next version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, and in the Scalable Networking Pack for Windows Server 2003.
There are fears that the injunction may delay the release of Longhorn which is scheduled to appear next year.
In dispute is Microsoft's 'Chimney' TCP offload architecture which offloads the TCP protocol stack to a Network Interface Card to provide an improved network performance. US company Alacritech, which develops networking solutions, claims that 'Chimney' is based on Alacritech's SLIC Technology architecture based on two patents 6,427,171 and 6,987,868 relating to scalable networking called `Protocol Processing Stack for use with Intelligent Network Interface Device`.
Alacritech sued Microsoft in Federal District Court in August of last year. Now a US District Court has issued a temporary injunction preventing Microsoft from selling any product based on the Chimney technology.
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