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Calif. Company Hits Yahoo with IP Suit

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

September 30, 2005, 4:40 PM

Move over Microsoft and Google. California-based Nuance Communications, makers of voice automation technology, said on Friday they planned to sue Yahoo in order to prevent the company from hiring 13 of its engineers. The company also accuses Yahoo of attempting to steal its intellectual property.

The engineers were working on a project for Nuance known as Directory Assistance Automation, which would negate the need for a live person to search for telephone numbers.

The venture was about three-quarters of the way done before Nuance's vice president of research and development, Larry Heck, left for a job with Yahoo. Twelve engineers later followed Heck, also accepting positions within Yahoo.

Nuance's attorney Jeffrey Chanin accused Yahoo in court documents of attempting to copy the company's work, which would then position Yahoo as a direct competitor to Nuance's business. Also, he claimed Yahoo is breaking California's anti-competition laws through the hiring of the development team.

Nuance would not comment on the lawsuit.

The company has high hopes for its technology, which it said could soon allow searching of the Internet by voice instead of a keyboard, above and beyond its currently proposed use.

Nuance's suit is the latest in a string of lawsuits by tech companies attempting to protect their intellectual property.

An ongoing case between Microsoft and Google also revolves around the hiring of a high-ranking executive, and Apple earlier sued several enthusiast sites over the leaks of what it called "trade secrets," a move later backed by both Intel and the Business Software Alliance.

A request for comment from Yahoo had not been answered as of press time.

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By citizen420

posted Oct 2, 2005 - 3:47 PM

nuance is probably just doing this for publicity, lol

Score: 0

By saki

edited Oct 2, 2005 - 6:31 AM

wow !!!
well tats wat yahoo can do ??? i m puzzled >>>

Score: 0

By tswca

edited Oct 1, 2005 - 5:02 PM

Oh, the irony! I can't help it, but this news just made me laugh out loud.

Nuance was a nothing and nobody until they raided Nortel R&D's (before that, Bell-Northern Research's) Speech Recognition research group in Montreal around 1997, starting with Matthew Lennig (at the time senior mgr of the speech recognition group, later head of R&D at Nuance). Doug Sharp, Chris Toulson (now on opposite sides of this law suit), and at least another dozen top engineers and researchers from Nortel joined Nuance following in Matt's wake. Nuance's vaunted technology was built on nothing but a decade of Nortel-funded IVR and flexible vocabulary recognition (FVR) research and products such as Automated Directory Assistance System (ADAS). The only reason Nuance has (had) a speech research group in Montreal is that those were the researchers who for one reason or another didn't want to leave Montreal after Nuance raided them from Nortel.

All the claims about "misappropriation of trade secrets", "raiding decades of speech recognition research", "negative knowledge", in-depth knowledge of the most advanced research projects and speech recognition code etc. that Nuance now makes in the law suit against Yahoo! applies exactly to what Nuance did less than ten years ago to Nortel. Maybe Nortel should sue Nuance if they ever get a settlement from Yahoo! Corporate amnesia is a wonderful thing :-)

Poetic justice, as far as I'm concerned.

- Thomas

Score: 0

By Scary Guy

posted Sep 30, 2005 - 7:43 PM

Let that be a lesson to them, it's easier just to flat out buy the company and not deal with the mess. Microsoft has been doing it for years.

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Oct 1, 2005 - 1:38 AM

how true this has always been Microsoft's philosophy. If it causes problems throw money at it.....or lawyers.

Score: 0

By robertguda

edited Sep 30, 2005 - 7:06 PM

Interresting to see what the judge will make out of this case...just for the facts, it looks like a pretty agressive move by yahoo. will this be the fate of all smaller companies develloping hot new stuff for use on the internet? simply being gobbled up by the bigger ones...they should have ways to protect themselves against these kind of buyouts where their direct future is at stake...on the other hand, its a creative way to land a new well pais job yes ? start your own company with some interresting project, leak it enough and sit and wait for the gobblers to come...( I hereby copyright the title of my next new movie: "The Gobblers"...and yes, I have a small audio visual company...)

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Oct 1, 2005 - 7:14 AM

I think this is a pointless case. If Nuance creates or just have an idea of this new technology, they must have a patent submitted. If they are stupid enough not submit one, they don't deserve to have good people working for them. Many tech companies hires a bunch of creative thinker just to come up with ideas and have them patents.