Barracuda battles Trend Micro patent claims

Trend demands licensing for gateway virus scanning idea.

Barracuda Networks

has announced it is fighting a legal battle against

Trend Micro

, who has claimed US patent rights to the concept of scanning traffic passing through network proxies for malware.

A licensing issue has been running between the two firms since late 2006, when

Trend

lawyers contacted

Barracuda

requesting a licensing deal.

Barracuda

‘s use of open-source anti-virus scanner

ClamAV

in its gateway products was seen as an infringement of a patent on the idea, held by

Trend

since 1995 and apparently covering many forms of malware scanning on files passing through firewalls, mail servers and other gateway systems.

Barracuda

argues that

Trend

was not the first to think of the idea, and also that as it is not importing any technology into the US the patent restrictions are invalid anyway. In a strongly worded press release and a section of the company’s website dedicated to fighting the patent claim,

Barracuda

has announced its decision to fight the claims, and issued a public request for information on similar products in existence prior to the patent’s filing in 1995, to support its ‘prior art’ argument.

Barracuda

‘s press release is

here

and more detailed legal arguments

here

. More commentary from a

CNet

blogger is

here

and coverage on

LinuxWorld

is

here

.

Posted on 29 January 2008 by

Virus Bulletin