Symantec v. Hotbar Lawsuit Settles

March 1, 2006 · by · in Adware/Spyware

By Eric Goldman

Symantec Corp. v. Hotbar.com, Inc., Case No. C05-02309 (notice of dismissal Feb. 1, 2006)

In June, Symantec sought a declaratory judgment that Symantec could characterize Hotbar’s software as “adware.” This lawsuit has settled. According to ComputerWorld, “the deal calls for Symantec to dismiss its suit, but continue to classify Hotbar’s program files as low-risk adware.”

It’s good that this particular matter got resolved, but legal disputes over characterizing software as adware/spyware will not go away any time soon. As a result, there would be significant benefit to creating some unambiguous breathing room for anti-spyware vendors to make their characterizations without having to seek declaratory judgments to do so.

Hat tip to Geist’s Internet Law News for catching this.