Stream Theory recently filed a lawsuit against Softricity, AppStream and Exent. The streaming application technology provider is claiming that the aforementioned companies are infringing on its U.S. patent number 6,453,334. Stream Theory is seeking damages and an injunction against Softricity, AppStream and Exent for what they are calling willful infringement of the patent.

"Stream Theory stated the U.S. patent office issued the patent on September 17, 2002," said the release by Stream Theory. "The patent describes 'Method and apparatus to allow remotely located computer programs and/or data to be accessed on a local computer in a secure, time- limited manner, with persistent caching.' The patent application was originally filed with the U.S. Patent Office on June 16, 1997, and is believed to be the earliest patent in the field of streaming software."