Express Logic Seeks Injunction Against Green Hills Software's micro-velOSity(TM) RTOS as Illegal Copy of ThreadX(R).

SAN DIEGO -- Company Alleges That Green Hills Violated ThreadX Copyright and is Engaged in Deceptive Business Practices Designed to Mislead Customers

Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), today filed a demand for arbitration seeking injunctive relief from Green Hills Software's marketing and distribution of their micro-velOSity ("u-velOSity") RTOS product, which includes an API that is alleged to be an illegal copy of Express Logic's copyrighted ThreadX API.

"As the author of ThreadX, I was shocked when I saw the API of u-velOSity, which immediately appeared to me to be a blatant copy of my work," commented William E. Lamie, president of Express Logic. "Software authors invest a lot of time and expertise in creative works like ThreadX, and it's a shame if that work is copied illegally and used to mislead potential ThreadX customers."

"Under US copyright law," noted Andrew D. Skale, attorney at law with Buchanan Ingersoll, PC, "you cannot legally create a derivative work that has substantial similarity to the original without permission of the author. We've asked for an injunction to stop Green Hills from selling u-velOSity and from misleading potential ThreadX customers."

Green Hills had access to ThreadX

As a reseller of ThreadX since 1998, Green Hills had extraordinarily broad access to ThreadX, and they remain a licensed reseller. In addition, Green Hills is a licensee of ThreadX, which they use in their Green Hills Probe hardware products. As a reseller and a licensee, Green Hills was privy to confidential and trade secret information about the operation, characteristics, and licensees of ThreadX. Express Logic's claim asserts that Green Hills has used this information for competitive purposes against Express Logic, and that this is a breach of confidentiality, as well as infringement of Express Logic copyrights. Based on this alleged copyright infringement, Express Logic has demanded that Green Hills immediately stop the sale and distribution of u-velOSity.

Substantial Similarity

Express Logic alleges that Green Hills' u-velOSity is substantially similar in expression to Express Logic's ThreadX, while significantly different from Green Hills' own velOSity(TM), even though it's implied by name to be a size-reduced version. For example, as contained in the Express Logic complaint, consider the "queue_send" service offered by ThreadX and u-velOSity:

ThreadX

tx_queue_send(TX_QUEUE *queue_ptr, VOID *source_ptr, ULONG wait_option);

u-velOSity

uv_queue_send(UV_QUEUE *queue_ptr, UV_ADDRESS source_ptr, UV_VALUE wait_option);

NOTE TO EDITORS: There is an asterisk before both mentions of queue_ptr and the first mention of source_ptr above. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.

The u-velOSity service name, the noun_verb structure of the name, the number of parameters, their order, and their names all are virtually identical to those of ThreadX, but very different from those of GHS' earlier velOSity:

ThreadX(1)      u-velOSity(2)   velOSity(2)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Service Name        tx_queue_send   uv_queue_send   SendOnMessageQueue
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name Structure      Noun_verb       Noun_verb       VerbNoun
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Parameters 3               3               2
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Parameter Order     Queue Pointer,  Queue Pointer,  Queue
                    Source Pointer, Source Pointer, Source Pointer
                    Wait Option     Wait Option
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Parameter Names     queue_ptr       queue_ptr       queue
----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    source_ptr      source_ptr      buffer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    wait_option     wait_option     N/A
----------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) Source: Information from Express Logic's ThreadX User Guide, 2006

(2) Source: Information from Green Hills Software Evaluation CD, 2006

In addition to the nearly identical service name and parameters, even the allowable names and values for the "wait option" parameter (incidentally, not present in velOSity) also are virtually identical between ThreadX and u-velOSity:

Wait_option Value Name               Wait_option Value
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ThreadX           u-velOSity        ThreadX          u-velOSity
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"TX_NO_WAIT"      "UV_NO_WAIT"      0                0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"TX_WAIT_FOREVER" "UV_WAIT_FOREVER" FFFFFFFF         FFFFFFFF
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other             Other             0 less than N    0 less than N
                                     less than        less than
                                     FFFFFFFF = Wait  FFFFFFFF = Wait
                                     N ticks          N ticks
----------------------------------------------------------------------

In its complaint, Express Logic alleges that this similarity was intentional, and was implemented for the purpose of enabling Green Hills to offer a ThreadX-compatible RTOS of their own to existing ThreadX customers, for the purpose of subverting those customers from ThreadX to a Green Hills RTOS.

Customers First

If Express Logic is successful in its action, and customers who have begun using u-velOSity are unable or unwilling to continue using it, Express Logic will help these customers make the transition from u-velOSity to ThreadX as simply as possible, both technically and in licensing as well.

About Express Logic

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX(R) RTOS, the high-performance NetX(TM) TCP/IP stack, the FileX(R) embedded MS-DOS compatible file system, and the USBX(TM) Host/Device USB protocol stack. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquires to [e-mail].

ThreadX and FileX are registered trademarks, and NetX, CANX, USBX, preemption-threshold, picokernel, UDP fast path technology, are trademarks of Express Logic, Inc. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.