ttorneys for WebGain Inc., a software tools vendor, announced Monday that Borland Software Corp. has dropped a patent infringement suit against the Santa Clara-based startup.
But while Preston Gates & Ellis lawyers touted the settlement as a victory on their part, Borland's attorneys said they decided to settle because WebGain is failing.
"Our understanding is that WebGain is about to go out of business," said Michael Barclay, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who represents Borland. "There's nothing to fight about if they're folding up the tent."
WebGain attorney Michael Bettinger, a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis' San Francisco office, said his client is downsizing, but is not going out of business.
Borland claimed that two of WebGain's products, particularly its VisualCafe software product, which developers use to create Java-based Web applications, infringes its patents. WebGain contended that Borland's patents covered an older language than the Java language.
Bettinger said the dispute was a "lightning rod for the industry" since Webgain was challenging how broadly Borland could claim rights to the way Java works.
San Francisco federal Judge Maxine Chesney had denied the bulk of WebGain's requests for summary judgment pending a hearing on claim construction, which had been scheduled for the end of August.
