It was reported last Thursday that Artifex Software is suing Palm over the PDF (Portable Document Format) viewer in Palm Pre’s smartphone. It has been alleged by Artifex that Palm have copied Artifex’s PDF rendering engine.

The PDF rendering engine by Artifex is called muPDF and has been integrated into the Palm Pre’s PDF viewer application without the necessary or appropriate licensing conditions.

Artifex require that an entire application must be licensed under the GNU (General Public License) (GPL) where muPDF is part of the application. However if the software isn’t licensed under the GNU or GPL then Artifex requires a commercial license in order for a company to use muPDF in accordance with the companies licensing terms.

Artifex claim that Palm has done neither and therefore have filed a lawsuit in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California. Looking at Palm’s documentation for the Pre it does include a mention of muPDF, which it also clearly states has been licensed under the GNU GPL. Palm declined to answer any questions when asked about the lawsuit. Source – arnnet.com

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