Taxware, which markets sales and value-added tax products, has acquired Convey Compliance Systems, a third-party filer of 1099s. Both were portfolio companies of Vista Equity Partners. The official description from the press release issued by Burlington, Mass.-based Taxware quotes Taxware CEO Andy Hovancik as follows: “Our company is now capable of expertly monitoring extensive and complex regulatory environments, developing and dynamically updating tax content, integrating with disparate enterprise applications, efficiently translating and storing data in a single relevant repository for reporting and reconciliation, and streamlining all facets of compliance reporting.”

Time to catch up with Kaseya, which makes IT management software. Last month, the company hired Maribeth Bearfield as EVP of human resources and Michael Pellini as general council. Pellini’s background is particularly interesting as he was deputy general council for six years at Unica Corp., He helped take that company public before it was then purchased by IBM and he remained there another three years. When I see companies building exec teams and adding someone with experience in the IPO process, it catches my attention.

AccountMate has expanded the number of products and services that can be leased when sold by the software company’s VARs.  Leasing options are now available for up to 100 percent of all AccountMate software, maintenance contracts, professional services and add-on application. Hardware can also be leased. AccountMate Leasing is provided via Dimension Funding with terms ranging from 24 months to 72 months. There are end-of-term options to give customers the choice to walk away from equipment, purchase for nominal or fair market value, extend the current lease, or upgrade. More information and the ability to apply are available at www.accountmateleasing.com

A decision in a patent infringement case brought against Lawson Software in 2009 has been vacated. The case was brought by ePlus, which alleged multiple infringements of different ePlus patents by Lawson procurement software. Lawson was acquired by Infor in mid-2011. Most claims were dismissed by a jury in 2011 or by a decision in 2012 by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. In May 2011, ePlus won an injunction against Lawson, which then redesigned its software to eliminate any infringement. But e-Plus claimed the new software was not much different and that Lawson had violated the injunction.

The court agreed and fined Lawson $18 million for civil contempt. In November 2013, the Federal Circuit affirmed a finding by the United States Patent and Trademark Office that ePlus' remaining patent claim was invalid. Lawson prevailed in a ruling last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which had already thrown out a number of ePlus's claims. The appeals court ruled there was no legal basis for the conjunction and that contempt award had to be set aside. The appeals returned the case to the District Court with instructions to dismiss it.