Seattle-based Timeline announced yesterday that it terminated a limited license agreement with Microsoft in 1999 following the Redmond company allegedly breached its terms. In addition to this, Timeline also charged that Microsoft’s SQL Server infringes on patents held by the company on online analytical processing.



Timeline has now filed a motion in US federal district court in Seattle, asking to add Microsoft as a defendant in a case against ProClarity, which makes add-on reporting and data visualization products that complement Microsoft’s SQL Server.



The trouble started in June 2005 when Timeline sued ProClarity for patent infringement. During then, the two companies almost went to court then over whether MS could sublicense the technology to other companies that added other programs to the database software, as ProClarity was doing.



The companies Timeline licenses software technologies include:



• Hyperion Solutions,

• Cognos, and

• Oracle.



As long as there would be Microsoft, there would be legal battles involving it. The point here is that after fighting so many legal battles, many of which are still going on, on so many fronts, Microsoft seems like having got used to going to the courtrooms to defend allegations and charges. This latest threat will hardly change the way it always did its business.



Via: InfoWorld