Microsoft to take spinoff to court?
MS Watch | at | by Mike
The Redmond software vendor says that startup Esiod's home networking product is too much like its 'Sidebar' and 'Fjord' products. A Monroe, Wash.-based home-networking software company run by two former Microsoft employees has run afoul of Microsoft. According to a cease-and-desist letter sent Friday to the startup, Esiod Systems, Microsoft believes the two employees violated their Microsoft non-compete agreements in designing and developing their product called "Schnazzle."
Schnazzle - which Esiod is due to release later today - is a little too similar to Microsoft's "Sidebar" interface technology that is part of MSN and expected to be featured as part of "Longhorn," according to the letter from Microsoft's lawyers, Preston, Gates & Ellis.