Macromedia claims it owns Adobe patent

October 19, 2001 10:09 PM

Macromedia claims it owns Adobe patent "Software-maker Macromedia Inc. is claiming it owns the patent to Adobe Systems Inc.'s popular Photoshop program, according to a suit filed in federal court Friday." Macromedia is alleging that in 1998 it patented technology used by Photoshop. Couldn't this only be web-based technology, since Photoshop was around long before 1998?
posted by kirkaracha (8 comments total)

gah! you beat me to this by mere seconds!

Seriously though, someone must have more info on this. I can't imagine what basis Macromedia is going on, but I have a hard time believeing it would actually suceed in gaining the rights to photoshop, if that is their goal.
posted by Hackworth at 10:17 PM on October 19, 2001

Saying that Macromedia "owns the patent to Photoshop" is more than a little misleading. You patent inventions, not entire software packages. Adobe's suing Macromedia for infringing on one of its patents (namely the 'tabbed' nature of stacked floating palettes) and Macromedia is suing Adobe for infringing on an undisclosed (at least in the AP article) other patent. Basically patents aren't pink slips...
posted by kfury at 10:28 PM on October 19, 2001

10 bucks says that its something that fireworks does that was added to photoshop.
posted by X-00 at 10:57 PM on October 19, 2001

Wasn't Adobe giving Macromedia a hard time about the very same issue, the tool palettes, not too long ago? Regardless, Photoshop incorporated the tabbed palette interface long before 1998, and their public existence before the patent filing date is an easy thing to prove. It will be the undisclosed patent violation that will be interesting, as there are several Photoshop / Fireworks crossovers that sprang up in the past few years.

Of course, if Adobe wanted to get rid of the whole problem that could argue that there is nothing non-obvious about a tabbed interface, but they'd be putting several of their own patents in jeopardy by setting that precedent.
posted by Nothing at 12:46 AM on October 20, 2001

Err, that's what I said. Adobe sued Macromedia over tabbed palettes, and now Macromedia is suing Adobe over another patent that hasn't been publicised.
posted by kfury at 9:22 AM on October 20, 2001

I went to a Macromedia demo seminar a few months ago where the Evangelist leading the thing spent most of his time talking about all the features they'd stoled from Adobe...

Can't we all just get along?
posted by spilon at 6:28 PM on October 20, 2001

More importantly, what is the patent law protecting in this circumstance? The point of patent law is to encourage innovation by ensuring that innovators can profit from their innovation, right? Well, if UI elements are useful, they will be developed with or without patent protection just to increase sales.
posted by gd779 at 6:46 PM on October 20, 2001

I starting using PS 2.5 back in 1994.

COuld be maybe a imageready suit? For firewroks, infringement? I mean imageready comes with now, and has since about 1998...

I dunno.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 10:18 PM on October 22, 2001