Lavasoft was founded in 1999, and has been described as "the original anti-spyware company", being the first company to deliver software to the general public to address spyware threats.[1] It has had two business aims, first to product anti-malware products, and second to provide an education about malware to the general public,[2] primarily via internal research and information hosted on or distributed from their corporate site.[1]
In 2004, Lavasoft was brought to court by
New.net with the claim that inclusion of New.net in its blocking database, thereby making users Ad-Aware anti-spyware software not subject to involuntary download of the New.net software, was injurious to New.net and actionable under state and federal law.[3] The dismissal of this case set a
precedent under which courts have subsequently "rejected attempts to obtain preliminary injunctive relief against internet speech."[4]
As of 2009, Lavasoft's
CEO was Jason King.[1] The company's flag-ship product was Ad-Aware,[1] also known as AdAware.[2]
In 2010, the company entered the personal firewall market with Lavasoft Personal Firewall.[5]