Symantec has published a white paper entitled A False Positive Prevention Framework for Non-Heuristic Anti-Virus Signatures. The paper looks at the root cause of false positives from non-heuristic anti-virus signatures, those signatures that are reactive to a known threat.

"[Legacy] solutions to address false positives at Symantec were traditionally aimed at the 'detection' of false positives," writes Symantec researcher Thomas Parsons. "However solutions based around the 'prevention' of false positives are more efficient. These solutions trigger far earlier in the signature generation lifecycle."

The Symantec white paper can be found here [PDF file].