lustratus LiteBytes

When IBM announced it wanted to acquire DataMirror, they probably didn’t even notice that there is an ongoing lawsuit between DataMirror and Teilhard Technologies – after all, this ‘battle of the midgets’ would hardly register on the giant’s radar.

For the vast majority of people who don’t know what I am talking about, Teilhard is a tiny Canadian company that has a patent to do with heterogeneous data exchange. I previously blogged about this when Oracle announced a settlement with Teilhard, earlier this year. Those people with a life probably do not know that this same company has a lawsuit running with DataMirror (actually, it has been running for three years now).

However, it seems to me that IBM coming into the game could well stir the pot. Would IBM mind if a company it had acquired were to lose an infringement case? Would it decide to get its own legal behemoth involved? If a settlement was agreed, would IBM’s presence inflate the figures? In the end, would IBM care at all?

If IBM did decide to take an interest, things could get quite amusing. After all, although Teilhard is suing DataMirror, DataMirror has filed a counter-claim. If IBM chose to notice this tiny irritation and do something about it, perhaps this whole thing could backfire on Teilhard.

Steve