NEWS • SEPTEMBER 27 , 2000
Macromedia Fires Back at Adobe
Lawsuit charges Illustrator and Premiere infringe on Macromedia technologies

by David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com

Adobe and Macromedia have entered round 2 of their bout to find out whose technologies infringe upon whose patents. Last month Adobe charged that Macromedia was infringing on Adobe's interface by using tabbed elements in its palettes. Now Macromedia says both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Premiere violate some of Macromedia's patents. Here's the partial statement released today by Macromedia:

Specifically, Macromedia counterclaimed against Adobe for infringing three Macromedia patents:

• U.S. Patent No. 5,467,443 relates to changing blended elements and automatic re-blending of elements and is infringed by its Adobe Illustrator product.

• U.S. Patents Nos. 5,151,998 and 5,204,969 relate to visually displaying and editing sound waveforms and are infringed by its Adobe Premiere product.

"Macromedia has no choice but to vigorously defend itself against the Adobe lawsuit," said Kevin Lynch, president, products for Macromedia. "Regardless of this lawsuit, we remain focused on developing and delivering the best products for our customers."

"Adobe's complaint, initially filed on August 10, alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,546,528 by tabbed palette features of certain Macromedia products. On September 18, Adobe amended its complaint to include an additional claim of infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,084,597 by image rendering features of Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Flash products. Macromedia today reaffirmed its denial of patent infringement claims in its answer to Adobe's amended complaint, which was filed with Macromedia's counterclaims."

Macromedia says this action was taken in direct response to Adobe's lawsuit and that Adobe's suit has no merit. Adobe is at http://www.adobe.com. Macromedia is at http://www.macromedia.com.

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