Antivirus code in dispute

Software CyberMedia alleges Symantec copyright infringement.

CyberMedia has accused Symantec of alleged copyright infringement and theft of trade secrets, claiming that code from its UnInstaller product ended up in in the antivirus developer's Norton Uninstall Deluxe.

Last week, CyberMedia filed suit in the Northern District of California, asking the court to order Symantec to halt sales of Norton Uninstall Deluxe and recall all copies from distributors and retailers. CyberMedia is also demanding compensatory and exemplary damages.

Bob Davis, CyberMedia vice president of marketing, said: 'In visual appearance, operation and design, Symantec's product is strikingly similar to an early version of UnInstaller, right down to some of the same computer bugs.'

A CyberMedia representative added: 'It's more than just the look-and-feel of the product. It's the actual code.' He claimed CyberMedia had discovered similarities in the code of both products.

However, Symantec president and CEO Gordon Eubanks said: 'We have no reason to believe that anything in the product is stolen from Cybermedia, but we are investigating that very carefully.'

Symantec's suit claimed that the code from an earlier CyberMedia UnInstaller ended up in the Symantec product via the intermediary of three software developers from ZebraSoft, which developed Norton Uninstall Deluxe for Symantec.

According to CyberMedia, the three formerly worked at MicroHel, the company which developed UnInstaller until it was acquired by Cybermedia.

However, Eubanks said there was a simple explanation for at least some of the similarities between the code. He said one DLL (Dynamic Link Library) that is a part of Norton Uninstall Deluxe is actually licensed from a third company called Elltech. 'It licenses compression software, among other things. We license it from it, Microsoft licensed it from it, and my guess is that CyberMedia licensed it too.'