Hilgraeve Sues McAfee and Symantec for Patent Infringement.

MONROE, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 1997--Hilgraeve Inc., best known as the makers of the HyperTerminal(R) program that Microsoft includes with Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, yesterday filed suits against McAfee Associates, Inc. and Symantec Corporation for infringement of its pioneering in-transit anti-virus patent, issued in 1994. The patent covers searching for virus signatures in data that is in transit to automatically inhibit virus infection, such as from files being downloaded from the Internet.

The development work underlying the Hilgraeve patent was done in 1989 based on IBM computer virus data, at a time when there were only 33 known viruses. Hilgraeve has since licensed IBM under its patent. Today, with thousands of known viruses and ubiquitous on-line communications, in-transit virus detection has become a central feature in the anti-virus software market. McAfee and Symantec failed to respond to license offers in 1996, and have now been sued for patent infringement. Both companies offer products that automatically inhibit data transfer if a virus signature is recognized in a data stream.

Hilgraeve has included in-transit virus detection in its communications software since 1990, referring to it as HyperGuard(R). HyperGuard skirts disaster by warning users if files they receive contain any of thousands of known viruses. HyperGuard can detect viruses in files of all kinds, including compressed and self-extracting executable files, and Microsoft Word documents.

HyperGuard is one of many security features in DropChute+ (TM), which Hilgraeve showed for the first time at Spring Comdex in June, where it won Byte Magazine's Best of Comdex award. DropChute+ lets users send files using a real-time delivery method that eliminates the uncertainty, unreliability and security risks of E-mail. DropChute+ contains a patent-pending innovation called Internet Rendezvous, which lets any user connect instantly to another user through the Internet, even if the other person is not already connected.

HyperTerminal, which is on virtually every Windows desktop, lacks HyperGuard. Many users upgrade to Hilgraeve's award-winning product, HyperACCESS(R) for Windows 95 and NT, to get this and other advanced features, such as scripting.

Hilgraeve is a leading developer of high performance communications software and one-to-one applications for the Internet. Its new DropChute+ personal file delivery software provides the easiest, fastest, most secure way to deliver files through the Internet, intranets, or modems. The company's popular HyperACCESS product line has won top awards from every major PC publication in comparisons against products such as Procomm Plus. Microsoft and IBM both include entry-level communications software made by Hilgraeve with their operating systems: IBM includes HyperACCESS Lite with OS/2 Warp, and Microsoft includes HyperTerminal(R) with Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.

Hilgraeve is represented in the suits by Brooks & Kushman P.C. of Southfield, Michigan. Brooks & Kushman has successfully handled major computer software litigation throughout the country, including the defense of Fox Software of Perrysburg, Ohio in the Ashton-Tate copyright case, and the defense of View Engineering of Simi Valley, California in the Robotic Vision Systems, Inc. patent infringement case.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is an "at" symbol following "gdelano" and "mattg" in the e-mail addresses below. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.

CONTACT: De Lano Communications

Gail De Lano, 408/685-3733

Fax: [phone]

[e-mail]

or

Hilgraeve Inc.

Matt Gray, 313/243-0576

[e-mail]