Altiris suits settled

A pair of software giants — one based in Utah and the other with significant operations in the state — have settled some long-standing litigation.

Lindon-based Altiris Inc. and Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif., said Thursday they had settled a pair of pending patent-infringement lawsuits.

The companies have agreed on a cross-license agreement that ends the suits. Altiris sued Symantec in 1999 in federal court in Utah, and Symantec sued Altiris in 2003 in federal court in eastern Texas.

"The suits had to do with a number of patents that pertain to the same type of software deployment process," Symantec spokesman Cris Paden said Thursday. "We owned some patents that performed those functions, and they had some patents that performed similar types of functions. We were trying to sort it out through litigation."

The companies' agreement calls for Symantec to pay $10 million to Altiris to use the disputed patented technology in Symantec products. The companies were keeping other details secret.

Altiris, Symantec and PowerQuest will dismiss the lawsuit claims. PowerQuest is the assignee of one of the lawsuit patents and now is a Symantec wholly owned subsidiary. Symantec obtained an office in American Fork in 2000 when it acquired Axent Technologies Inc., and it obtained an Orem office through its PowerQuest acquisition.

Symantec has more than 250 workers in Utah, part of a worldwide work force of about 5,000 spread throughout more than 35 countries. It is best known for its Norton brand of information security software.

Altiris software is designed to allow information technology organizations to manage, secure and service devices and other software.

"Any litigation is over at this point between Altiris and Symantec," said Altiris spokesman Rhett Glauser. "That's a good thing for both companies."

"It was an amicable agreement," Paden said. "Both companies realized it was in their best interest, and in the best interest of their customers, to come to some type of settlement in these cases.

"It had gone on long enough. It would have gone on a little bit longer, too, because the cases were in such a long line in the court dockets. Both companies decided the best way to help both of them would be if they settled this out of court."

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