A federal judge in San Jose has ordered Symantec Corp to stop shipping the Norton Uninstall Deluxe product and all suites and bundles containing the underlying code as part of a patent infringement suit brought against the company by utilities rival CyberMedia Inc. The suit was first filed by CyberMedia in February (CI No 3,342). The Court for the Northern District of California has granted CyberMedia’s request for a preliminary injunction in the case, which alleges that Symantec’s product employees code stolen from an earlier version of CyberMedia’s Uninstaller product. As part of the injunction, Symantec must also recall all copies of the disputed product from retailers. The granting of the injunction essentially means that the judge finds that in a trial CyberMedia is likely to succeed in proving that there was indeed copyright infringement on the part of Symantec. For now, it must cease manufacturing, selling, distributing, and advertising the product and any related suites. Symantec contends that the entire issue is moot due to the fact that, as a precaution, it has since replaced the code in question. Network Associates Inc announced in July that it would acquire CyberMedia for $130m in cash (CI No 3,462). Symantec stock fell $1.125, or 5.6%, on Friday to close at $19.125, while CyberMedia rose $0.0625 to $8.375.
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