Thanks Activewin for the heads up on this story.
Microsoft Corp. has been accused in a lawsuit of helping Visio Corp. steal a Utah company's software technology for computer-aided designs. In 2000, the Redmond software maker bought Visio, a Seattle company that made charting and organizational graphics software, for about $1.5 billion in stock. Code Zebra, a closely held software developer based in Draper, Utah, said it gave Visio confidential information about its patented computer-aided design technology while the two were in talks over a licensing agreement. After Microsoft announced in September 1999 that it was buying Visio, Code Zebra was told that Visio was no longer interested in the technology, the Utah company alleges in a lawsuit filed Jan. 2 in federal court in Salt Lake City. Microsoft continued to sell Visio products even after being told it was using the Code Zebra inventions, the suit contends.
News source: Seattle P-I
