Trend Micro Alleges Patent Infringement Against Barracuda Over Open Source Anti-Virus Software ClamAV

Trend Micro is suing its rival over Barracuda Networks’s use of ClamAV, a product maintained by US open source company Sourcefire, on the grounds that Barracuda Network’s use of the software in some of its own products infringes a patent held by Trend Micro on applying AV via gateway proxy servers. Trend Micro alleges that ClamAV has allowed Barracuda’s products to operate in a way that infringes a patent granted to the company in 1997. The patent stakes claim to AV software capturing viruses at the gateway through the use of File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) proxy servers for Web and e-mail virus filtering respectively.

Barracuda Networks plans to focus on finding prior art to defend itself and the open-source ClamAV project against patent claims by rival antivirus vendor Trend Micro, which stressed Tuesday that it owns a tested and valid patent.

Using gateway antivirus? You could be sued
Barracuda vows to fight open-source patent war against Trend Micro


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