It’s barely out of the gate but start-up Montage Software Inc, which just changed its name from Miro Systems, has been hit with a trademark infringement suit by Infinity International Financial Technology Inc, a Mountain View, California software company with a line of products named Montage. It is seeking a preliminary injunction and damages. Montage Software also calls its product, an object-oriented relational database, Montage. Infinity too has a relational database used by financial institutions called Montage Data Model. It says its products integrate object-oriented programming and relational database technology within a client-server architecture, a positioning that makes it close to Montage Software’s. Montage, conversely, says it bought a trademark that pre-dates Infinity’s, and it contests its claims that the products can be confused, saying they are distinguishable on the basis of function, channels, market, sales and pricing. Montage’s sell for $1,000; Infinity’s for up to $2m. The suit became public knowledge the day before Montage Software’s new president and chief executive Dick Williams came on board to replace venture capitalist Gary Morgenthaler, the company’s chairman, who had been filling the role temporarily. Williams had been executive vice-president of sales and general manager of the Digital Research Systems Group at Novell Inc. From 1987 to 1991 he was president of Digital Research, but sold it to Novell and presided over its merger with Novell. He left last year and had been at IBM for 21 years.
