Adobe and Macromedia in court

Rival design tools vendors, Adobe and Macromedia, will be in court this week over a patent dispute filed almost two years ago.

Back in August 2000 Adobe filed a suit against Macromedia alleging that the company's Flash animation software infringed two patents held by Adobe for "tabbed palettes".

The design feature in question allows users to reorganise their workspace within the editing suite.

Adobe had previously warned Macromedia of alleged patent violation in 1996 when its rival used tabbed palettes in Fireworks, another design tool for web graphics.

Following the filing of Adobe's case, Macromedia has since retaliated with a countersuit, alleging that Adobe's Photoshop software and its GoLive web design toolkit infringed on two patents held by Macromedia.

Adobe's claim will be up in court today [Monday] and Macromedia's case will be put before a jury once a verdict on the original filing has been given.