Symantec has taken legal action against rivals Acronis and Veeam, claiming both companies infringe on its patents.
In a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Symantec said Veeam had infringed on four separate patents. The company did not publish its Acronis complaint.
"Acronis and Veeam unlawfully leverage Symantec patented technologies in their respective backup and replication products," Symantec said in a blog post.
We are aware of the complaint, and plan to defend it vigorously.
"This free riding on Symantec is wrong and Symantec has filed these lawsuits to protect its intellectual property."
One patent in the Veeam case relates to methods that "permit the back-up of a virtual machine to a destination separate from the storage device used by the virtual machine."
Another relates to the restoration of a client machine, either virtual or physical, on a network.
The remaining two focus on period replication technology and a method for using a snapshot rather than a full volume copy for backing-up files.
Symantec's chief backup solution is Backup Exec, which it acquired when it merged with Veritas in 2005.
In its complaint, Symantec claimed it was harmed by Veeam's use of its technologies so much so that it could not be compensated in monetary damages alone. This may indicate Symantec would like to see Veeam's products, including its Backup & Replication lines, banned.
Veeam said it did not wish to comment on the matter as the litigation was ongoing.
Acronis, however, said it was willing to fight Symantec in court.
"We are aware of the complaint, and plan to defend it vigorously," an Acronis spokesperson told IT Pro.
"This type of litigation happens all of the time between competitors in the software business and has no effect today on our existing customers or our ability to sell software to new customers."
