Adobe Beats Macromedia in Patent Case

A Delaware jury has determined that Macromedia infringed on technology patents held by Adobe Systems, and has awarded Adobe $2.8 million in damages, the companies announced Thursday.

Adobe sued Macromedia in August 2000 in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware. The graphics software company charged that Macromedia's Flash animation product makes use of patented technology developed by Adobe for its "tabbed palette," a feature that helps users organize information on their computer screens.

Along with its damages award, Adobe said it expects the court to issue an injunction that will prevent Macromedia from further infringement of Adobe patents.

Related Suit Pending

Macromedia had filed a countersuit against Adobe raising patent-infringement allegations of its own. Macromedia expects to begin presenting that case on Monday, a company representative said.

"It is unfortunate, and we believe wrong, that Adobe has chosen this field to compete. Ultimately, it is our customers, and particularly our mutual customers, that will be harmed," Rob Burgess, Macromedia's chair and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Macromedia has always denied Adobe's patent-infringement claims. The company contends that the patent is invalid because previous work of the same type exists that was not disclosed in the patent application. Macromedia representatives say that has been their position since 1996, when Adobe first complained to Macromedia about infringement.

Long-standing Rivalry

Adobe and Macromedia support each other's file formats, and their applications have long shared space on the desktops of many graphics professionals.

Adobe representatives said when they filed the suit that they had notified Macromedia repeatedly that its products were infringing on Adobe's patent. They said Macromedia crossed the line with the introduction of a new interface in the software development tool Flash 5.

Macromedia recently updated Flash with the introduction of Flash MX, the first in a new MX line of integrated Web development tools. Several of them, including its Fireworks program, use an interface that Adobe contends incorporates its own palette.

Macromedia and Adobe compete with numerous graphics products. Adobe Illustrator competes with Macromedia FreeHand; Adobe GoLive squares off with Macromedia Dreamweaver; and Adobe LiveMotion vies against Macromedia Flash. Their products even share certain file formats. Adobe supports the Flash .swf format in many of its products, while Macromedia supports Photoshop files in Fireworks.