Press Release July 14, 1992 Press Contact: Donnalyn Frey (703) 764 9342 In a move with chilling overtones for the computer software industry, AT&T, through its subsidiary UNIX System Laboratories (USL), has filed suit in federal court in New Jersey against a small software developer, Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI). The principal issue in the case is USL's contention that the University of California, Berkeley is distributing software in violation of its license with AT&T. However, USL has not sued the University, nor have they stopped the University from distributing the software in question. Instead, the suit was filed against BSDI, a distributor of the University's software and a potential competitor. At issue in USL's lawsuit is the University's Networking 2 Release software. That software has been licensed to third parties, including BSDI, as "AT&T-free" and with the statement that no source code license from AT&T is required. USL has sued BSDI for falsely advertising that its own licensees need no source code license from AT&T, a contention that merely mirrors the University's statements to BSDI. The basis for the false advertising claim appears to be that distribution of the University's software without a license from AT&T violates USL's proprietary rights. However, USL has refused to state what proprietary rights it thinks are violated or to sue directly for copyright, patent or trade secret infringement. Because USL's complaint is so vague and inconsistent, it fails to provide even the minimum notice required to properly inform BSDI of the legal basis for the suit. BSDI has therefore requested that the court dismiss the suit under Section 12(b)6 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Section 12(b)6 states that a complaint must be adequately formed so that the defendant understands what it has allegedly done. Although USL has not sued the University of California, we expect that USL (or its parent, ATT) will threaten to review or withdraw research grants made to any university or research institution using or distributing software based on NET2, even though no violation has yet been proven. The nature of the suit against BSDI shows that AT&T's real motivation is to harass and to attempt to intimidate a potential competitor. It does not involve any legitimate dispute. AT&T has now signaled their intent to maintain a monopoly on the Unix System market by suing anyone who refuses to tithe to them. The result could be a significant chilling effect on the efforts of many companies to develop Unix-compatible software products. While we are flattered that AT&T considers BSDI's product to be such a significant competitive threat that they feel the need to file harassing and frivolous suits, we feel obligated to disclose their actions to the general public. We are therefore providing a copy of the actual complaint filed, the first set of interrogatories from USL and BSDI's motion to dismiss.