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Adobe threatening software creators in US and EU with Palette Patent
Commemorate Banana Union Day

In summer 2001 Adobe attacked Macromedia for infringing on its US patent no 5546528 which lays claim to the idea of adding a third dimension to menus by grouping them as tabbed palettes one behind the other. The European Patent Office (EPO) has illegally granted EP0689133 with exactly the same set of claims and priority date of 1994-06-23 on 2001-08-06, after five years of examination period. Many programs, including free software such as The GIMP, infringe on this patent and will therefore be at the mercy of Adobe, if the EPO's practise of granting software patents is made enforcable by a Directive from the European Commission.
->Patent US 5546528
->Adobe Patent on Tabbed Palettes
This patent, granted by the EPO in Aug 2001, has been used by Adobe to sue Macromedia Inc in the US. The EP version took 6 years to examine, and it was granted in full breadth, without any modification. It covers the idea of adding a third dimension to a menu system by arranging several sets of options behind each other, marked with tabs. This is particularly found to be useful in image processing software of Adobe and Macromedia, but also in The GIMP and many other programs.
->phm: Adobe ./ Macromedia (de)
->phm: Adobe ./ Macromedia (en)
->Adobe FAQ
->Heise 2002-05-03: Adobe gewinnt Patentklage gegen Macromedia
US verdict against Macromedia: 2.8 mn USD in damages to be payed to Adobe for using tabbed palettes. Macromedia is simultaneously suing Adobe for infringement of two of its patents and forcing them to withdraw or downgrade programs such as PhotoShop and GoLive
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english version 2004/08/16 by Hartmut PILCH