False ownership, tortuous interference and misappropriation of trade secrets are the charges leveled against Hewlett-Packard Co by privately-held Computer Aid Inc’s New Century Communications unit in a $100m lawsuit. The allegations stem from Hewlett-Packard’s 1994 acquisition of cable television testing equipment manufacturer Calan Inc – New Century alleges that Calan sold itself to Hewlett-Packard on the value of the Galaxy network management and diagnostic software product, but claims that it was developing Galaxy with Calan under an exclusive joint venture agreement – yet several months after the acquisition, Hewlett-Packard asserted that it was the sole owner of all software rights to Galaxy and ordered New Century to stop work on the project under threat of litigation, and now New Century believes that Hewlett-Packard’s new telemetry system is based extensively on the architecture, technology and programming techniques that were used for the Galaxy program.
