Adobe Barred From Distributing InDesign

A federal judge ordered Adobe Systems Inc. to pull its popular InDesign program off store shelves Tuesday because Adobe illegally incorporated another company’s software into it.

U.S. District Judge William J. Rea issued the preliminary injunction in Los Angeles after concluding that Adobe, the world’s second-largest software company, violated the terms of a contract with Trio Systems, which makes a database program called C-Index.

Adobe fought the order vigorously, arguing that yanking the $700 InDesign program, used by professional graphic designers, would cost the company more than $4million and damage its reputation.

Adobe spokeswoman Holly Campbell said that although the company disagreed with Rea’s findings, it would follow the judge’s order and remove the software from the market.

“Version 2.0 of InDesign will be coming out within a month, and that doesn’t use any of Trio’s software,” Campbell said.

Trio attorney Henry Gradstein disputed that: “They say they took it out of the next version InDesign, but there are substantial questions that the court will have to examine before we’re satisfied that’s accurate.”

InDesign is used in conjunction with another Adobe product, InCopy.

Campbell said that product would be removed from the market as well.

Quark Inc. has dominated the graphics layout business since 1985, but in recent years InDesign has become a highly regarded alternative.

Adobe declined to release sales figures for InDesign.