Don't Be Evil Google sued for a billion over IP theft charges

Davey Winder
Thursday, 26 June 2008 21:06

Your IT - Home IT

A Chicago start-up business has filed a $1 Billion lawsuit against Google. LimitNone accuses the search giant of stealing its migration tool technology.

It has a well known corporate philosophy of Don't Be Evil, yet Google stands accused of doing just that. LimitNone, the Chicago based development software developers who have filed the lawsuit, maintains that Google misappropriated the technology it was working on with them.

LimitNone had been working as part of the Google Enterprise Professional Program (GEPP) in order to help counter the dominance of Microsoft in the business email market. The program allows third party developers to partner with Google to develop solutions together.

In February 2007 when Google launched the Google Apps suite it was missing an easy way to migrate from Microsoft Outlook to the new application platform. It needed a solution to enable businesses to get their email, calendar and contacts data into Google Apps.

LimitNone had developed just such a tool, and went to Google in March to demo the technology. The lawsuit suggests that Google Apps executives then invited LimitNone to join GEPP in order to progress that development and share the marketing.

Importantly, according to the LimitNone lawsuit version of events, Google also made assurances that it was not itself planning on developing any similar product.

So it was that the tool in question called MY GRATE (migrate, get it, very funny) became part of the program as it were. The name was changed to gMove, LimitNone say at Google's insistence, and the price reduced from AUD $60 to AUD $40.

All went well, it would seem, with LimitNone getting introductions to some big Google clients such as Intel, Morgan Stanley and Toys 'R' Us. All went well until December 2007 when, LimitNone insist, they were told by Google it was releasing a competing product called Google Email Uploader.

If that were not bad enough in the Do No Evil stakes, Google were to be giving it away free to premier customers.

The LimitNone lawsuit alleges that Google Email Uploader steals the look, feel and functionality of gMove.

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