Stac Electronics
Stac Electronics was a computer company founded in 1984 by four students from Caltech University of California and dissolved in 2002. A name Stac Electronics made in particular by backup solutions, but also in development of algorithms of data compression . The best-known product from Stac Electronics was Stacker , a data compression program that was launched on the market in 1990 and which freed the company from a financially difficult situation due to the great sales success. Stacker made it possible for users to compress files to around half their original file size and thus to use the then tightly limited and expensive hard disk space more effectively.
Confrontation with Microsoft
With the release of Microsoft's MS-DOS 6.2 in 1993, Stacker ended its sales success . The Microsoft operating system contained its own compression program called DoubleSpace and thus ended Stac Electronics' quasi-monopoly on the data compression market. Various pieces of evidence suggested that DoubleSpace was based on Stacker's technology . In a subsequent lawsuit in 1994, Stac Electronics sued Microsoft for unauthorized patent use and industrial espionage and was awarded $ 5.50 in compensation for each copy of MS-DOS 6.2 sold, totaling approximately $ 120,000,000.
Microsoft responded with a counterclaim. Stac have including through reverse engineering of undocumented PRELOAD interface in DOS 6 and their use in breach Stacker 3.1 against trade secrets of Microsoft. Microsoft was subsequently awarded $ 13.6 million in compensation.
Stac Electronics again obtained an injunction prohibiting the further sale of MS-DOS 6.2. As a result, DOS was distributed as version 6.21 without DoubleSpace .
Ultimately, both parties reached a settlement at the end of 1994 . Microsoft committed a $ 39,900,000 corporate investment to Stac Electronics and a $ 43,000,000 patent acquisition fee, and Stac Electronics waived all claims. Microsoft then implemented the now licensed compression again under the name DriveSpace from DOS 6.22.
Dissolution of the company
After the comparison with Microsoft, Stac Electronics looked for new sources of income and developed various products, none of which, however, were a great commercial success. In the course of the " New Economy ", the company renamed itself Previo in 1998 and developed software products. When the New Economy bubble burst , the company dissolved in 2002. Software technology developed up to then was profitably sold to competitor Altiris .
Web links
- Stacker - An Illustrated Tutorial . ( Memento from August 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (German: "Stacker - an illustrated guide") wambooli.com, TAB / Windcrest (McGraw-Hill) 1993 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Complaint for patent infringement and Demand for jury trial ( Memento of the original dated May 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Stac Electronics v Microsoft Corporation
- ↑ Microsoft Loses Patent Suit . ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Associated Press , February 23, 1994
