Informatica has been awarded £13.1m in damages against
Business Objects in a patent battle over data warehousing
technology.
The damages were awarded by a jury in a US federal court, after
the court found that Business Objects had “wilfully” infringed two
Informatica patents in selling its
Data Integrator product.
Informatica filed the suit against Business Objects in July
2002, asserting that the ActaWorks product (now sold by Business
Objects as Data Integrator), infringed several Informatica patents,
including US Patent Numbers 6,014,670 and 6,339,775.
The two patents are both entitled “Apparatus and method for
performing data transformations in data warehousing.”
The case was inherited by Business Objects when the company
acquired Acta Technologies in July 2002.
The judge determined that Business Objects’ and customers’ use
of the Data Integrator product infringed on Informatica's patents.
As the patent infringements were deemed to be wilful, the judge has
the option of increasing the royalty damages in a final
judgement.
Informatica is asking for a permanent injunction preventing
Business Objects from shipping the infringing technology now and in
the future. It has not said it will go after Business Objects'
customers for infringing the patents.
Business Objects said, “We are prepared to quickly replace the
code in our shipping products and will continue to provide our
customers with the quality solutions they have come to expect from
Business Objects Enterprise Information Management products.”
Informatica hooks up on-demand data
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