There’s nothing quite like corporate bad blood between companies fighting over the same turf; such is the case with Kaspersky and Rising, two companies that distribute computer protection software. What started as terse verbal exchanges has now escalated to a full on court battle over defamation, unfair competitive practices, and undoubtedly some nasty comments about each company’s respective moms…

What could ever raise the tension level between the two companies to such a dangerous degree? In May, Kaspersky’s software flagged a component of Rising’s software as a malicious trojan, which spurred on Rising to respond by saying that Kaspersky’s security software misread other components, not only Rising’s, and that Kaspersky held no respect for the Chinese user base.

Not taking kindly to accusations of that sort, Kaspersky responded by saying that Rising includes “unencrypted signatures,” a practice widely regarded to be insecure in security software circles…and not to be out done, fanned the flame by claiming all Rising wanted with accusing Kaspersky was to draw publicity to Rising’s own product.

Deeply cut by the vengeful remarks, Rising has officially sued Kaspersky for defamation, apparently not concerned with squashing Kaspersky’s own claims that attention is Rising’s largest motivator.

Kaspersky, which has seemingly been defending itself against the vicious onslaught of hate from Rising, has responded in kind with its own suit, claiming that Rising is engaging in unfair competitive practices and has wronged them with similar defamation.

Though the case is due to trial later this month in Tianjin, this might not reach a speedy resolution; the judge would do well to issue a long-standing subpoena to the parents of each company to make sure no one is spit on, or that no lunch money is brutally stolen while the court makes attempts at progress.

Virus Bulletin source

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Entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 7:26 pm under Legal, Software.

Read more entries by Triston McIntyre.
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