Veeam hails victory in Symantec patent scrap

Virtualisation vendor claims win in three-year legal battle over replication products

Veeam Software claims to have scored a "resounding victory" in its patent battle with Symantec, just as it announced a 40 per cent jump in annual bookings.

The virtualisation vendor claims the first patent infringement case Symantec brought against it three years ago this month has effectively ended with a "resounding victory" for Veeam.

In February 2012, Symantec announced it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Acronis and Veeam, claiming they had "unlawfully leveraged" its technologies in their respective backup and replication products. This involved four patents in the case of Veeam.

Veeam announced today that it had successfully forced Symantec to dismiss the asserted claims of the patents, meaning the case is "now over, and Symantec cannot assert these patent claims against Veeam's current products again".

"This is a big victory for Veeam. I am pleased with the USPTO [US Patent and Trademark Office] rulings," said Veeam chief executive Ratmir Timashev.

"This case shows that Veeam will not back down in the face of threats, even when those threats are made by a large company like Symantec."

A potential fly remains in the ointment for Veeam, however, as Symantec filed a second patent infringement case against it involving four additional patents, in October 2012. Veeam said this is likely to be settled in April.

Veeam's claimed victory came as it announced its full-year 2014 bookings had risen 40 per cent to $389m, propelling it closer to its 2018 revenue goal of $1bn.

In a statement sent to CRN, Symantec said: "The legal dispute between Symantec and Veeam remains ongoing and proceedings continue before the patent office and in federal court. Symantec continues to vigorously assert its legal rights to protect its intellectual property. As the legal dispute is still pending, we have no additional comment."