MicroStrategy has won a summary judgment in a patent infringement lawsuit that rival Business Objects SA had filed against it.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a summary judgment dismissing Business Objects lawsuit on the grounds that Business Objects did not have enough evidence for the case to proceed.
The lawsuit had alleged that MicroStrategy infringed upon U.S. Patent No. 5,555,403, entitled “Relational Database Access System Using Semantically Dynamic Objects” owned by Business Objects.
“The courts ruling confirms the substantial differences between MicroStrategys enterprise-class technology and the basic ideas embodied in Business Objects products and 403 patent filed more than a decade ago,” said MicroStrategy general counsel Jonathan Klein in a statement.
Business Objects had sued Cognos Inc. and Brio Technology Corp. on similar grounds, reaching settlements in both cases. Business Objects officials declined to comment on the dismissal citing legal concerns. MicroStrategy has also sued Business Objects for patent infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and tortious interference with contractual relations. That suit is expected to proceed to trial in Federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, in late 2003 or early 2004, according to MicroStrategy officials.
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