SAN FRANCISCO (02/08/2000) - With the settling of securities litigation behind it, Informix Corp. might well have hoped legal woes were a thing of the past.
However, the U.S. database and tools vendor is now facing a patent infringement lawsuit from IBM Corp.
IBM filed an action against Informix Friday alleging patent infringement at the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, IBM spokeswoman Carol Makovich confirmed in a phone interview today. The suit relates to six patents dealing with database software as well as software for distributed processing and data compression technology, Makovich said.
"The initiation of a lawsuit is a rare step for IBM," she said. "We are very serious about this case."
Makovich said that IBM has been in discussion with Informix for over a year relating to the alleged patent infringements in an attempt to initiate talks about Informix licensing the disputed IBM technology, as well as compensating IBM for its use in the past.
For its part, Informix issued a statement today saying that the company "strongly believes that the allegations are utterly devoid of merit and intends to defend the action vigorously and to assert such claims against IBM as may be appropriate." No company representative could immediately be reached for comment.
Informix settled private securities litigation toward the end of 1999 and reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month.
The SEC charged that Informix had fraudulently inflated revenues and earnings between 1994 and 1997 -- allegations that Informix neither admitted or denied.
The company agreed to cooperate with the SEC's ongoing investigation. [See "UPDATE: Informix Settles Securities Charges," Jan. 11.]Informix, in Menlo Park, California, can be reached at +1-650-926-6300 or via the Internet at http://www.informix.com/. IBM, in Armonk, New York, can be reached at +1-914-499-1900 or via the Internet at http://www.ibm.com/.