Baan International BV has been ordered to turn over to Computer Associates source code for Triton Tools 6.0 by a US federal district court – and both parties are claiming the ruling as a major victory. The source code relates to CA-Manman/X, the manufacturing software product developed by the Ask Group Inc, acquired by Computer Associates in July, based on technology licensed from Baan. Computer Associates says it has now achieved its first two objectives: obtaining the source code necessary to support existing CA-Manman/X users and also the Triton Tools 6.0 source code, and Computer Associates will continue to press its claim for punitive and compensatory damages. It claims that it now has all the source code necessary to support existing users and develop new versions of CA-Manman/X. However according to Baan, the court ruling means that Computer Associates only has rights to the source code of an early, beta version of Triton Tools 6.0A and only then for supporting existing Manman/X customers. Furthermore Computer Associates is prohibited from selling or licensing Triton Tools 6.0A to the market and a bond must be posted by Computer Associates payable to Baan in the event of Computer Associates breaching these restrictions. Baan is delighted with the ruling and will be offering a migration and upgrade program to enable Manman/X users to convert to Triton 3.0, Baan’s offering, promising that future releases will include a new graphical user interface for Windows and X Window, extended functionality for Triton Distribution, Triton Service and additional functionality for database support of Oracle, Informix and Sybase. The comment of Gerald Rosberg, Computer Associates senior vice-president and general counsel, that the ruling is unambiguous appears laughable.
