U.S. anti-virus company Symantec on Thursday accused computer-industry giant Microsoft of misusing its technologies.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in the state of Washington, where Microsoft is based, Symantec accused Microsoft of misappropriating its data storage technologies.

Over nearly a decade, Microsoft has "deliberately and surreptitiously" misappropriated Symantec's storage technologies, misled and thereby convinced the U.S. government to issue patents to Microsoft based on technologies invented by Symantec," Symantec said in its complaint.

The California-based company charged that Microsoft overstepped the bounds of the licensing deal between the two companies and broke the terms of the contract by denying Symantec access to Microsoft source codes.

But Microsoft argued that Symantec's suit stemmed from "a very narrow disagreement" regarding the terms of a 1996 licensing deal Microsoft had with software security firm Veritas, which Symantec acquired last year.

Microsoft said it licensed the volume management technology from Veritas in 1996 and exercised an option to buy the software code and intellectual property rights in 2004.

"We believe the facts will show that Microsoft's actions were proper," Microsoft said.