Alacritech argues that Microsoft's software violates two of its patents relating to scalable networking, US Patent No. 6,427,171 and US Patent No. 6,987,868, both entitled Protocol Processing Stack for use with Intelligent Network Interface Device.
The injunction claims that in 1997 Alacritech invented network interface software to speed up data flows across networks. In 1998 it approached Microsoft to see whether the software giant would be interested in licensing the technology.
There are fears that the injunction may delay the release of Longhorn which is scheduled to appear next year.
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