Macrovision Uses Legal Scare Tactics Against InstallAware

[sinan]

InstallAware has recently received a legal scare letter from Macrovision, the company that now owns the InstallShield product line. We have decided to make the full text of this letter public. In the letter:

http://www.installaware.com/threat/

Macrovision is alleging that our website might be confused with their website, and that this constitutes unfair competition. In our response:

http://www.installaware.com/iamvis.doc

we are inviting software developers to vote directly on whether they believe they are mislead in any way by our website:

http://www.installaware.com/installawar ... nfused.asp

InstallAware strongly feels that this legal scare letter serves as evidence that the once mature installation space is ready for a change.

Please don't hold back on your votes, and any other feedback.

Thank you,
Sinan

[wolbrink]

Please don't hold back on your votes, and any other feedback.

Hi Sinan,

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it shows that InstallAware is actually appearing on their radar screen as competition. For such a large company to bother their lawyers with such relatively new product, that is probably a good sign. I think it's a stretch for them to insinuate that "InstallAware" is too closely named to their and "InstallAnywhere" product. We developers who use such products are pretty savvy when it comes to correctly recognizing a product by its name. But on the other hand, the letter does seem to make a point about the copying of text verbatim from their website. How do you plan on addressing this?

--Troy