CA sued (again): This time for $800m

Computer Associates has been hit with an $800m lawsuit by a group of three Canadian security companies that claim the New York-based software giant ripped off their intellectual property when developing its own security applications.

CA is also accused of serious breaches of contract in the court filing, though the company denies any wrongdoing and says the filing lacks any merit.

NI Group, Scienton Technologies and Secure-IT claim CA stole concepts and software as well as failing to honour a contract to pay up for development and implementation work carried out for a number of CA customers.

At the centre of the accusations are two CA products - eTrust 20/20 and Command Center. In both instances, it is claimed CA stole ideas and intellectual property from the complainants following previous work carried out with the Ontario-based companies.

The lawsuit, filed with a federal court in New York, claims damages in excess of $800m and while a CA spokesman claimed the accusations have "no merit", its second major lawsuit in recent weeks is further evidence of the company's troubled and ongoing attempts to haul itself out of a two-year-long lawsuit and federal investigation-related malaise.

Major investor and long-term boardroom agitator Sam Wyly recently announced his intention to seek damages of around $1bn from Computer Associates.