Microsoft sued over unified communications deal

16.01.2009
Microsoft has been sued by a small Wisconsin business for allegedly misrepresenting the capabilities of its Live Communications Server product, selling the company more licenses than it needed and not providing a refund or other products to solve its original problem.

Imagineering International filed its lawsuit in December in the Fond de Lac County circuit court in Wisconsin, accusing Microsoft of breach of contract and breach of warranties, among other offenses.

Imagineering claims Microsoft failed to resolve problems the company had with deploying an enterprise version of Live Communications Server, then did not replace the product with a revamped version, Office Communications Server (OCS), as Microsoft had promised.

Microsoft also never provided Imagineering with a refund for the products and licenses it purchased, after requiring Imagineering to destroy its licenses and the software as a condition of receiving a credit toward OCS, said Jeff MacMillan, president and CEO of Imagineering.

Imagineering, a 23-person IT consulting firm and reseller, had been a Microsoft partner for about 10 years at the time it purchased the products and licenses, he said. The company has since terminated its partnership with Microsoft.

Rather than responding in the same court, Microsoft filed papers Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee to move the case from the county court to the federal court, citing Imagineering's request for damages that exceed US$50,000 as one reason.