Most recent blog entries

Autodesk Settles Solidworks Lawsuit

owenw@manusoft.com — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:38:00 GMT

A settlement agreement was reached literally in the middle of the night before the trial was to start Tuesday morning. The settlement agreement is confidential, but there are some consequences of the agreement worth mentioning, and that I'm sure will be discussed in more detail over the coming weeks. The issue of Autodesk's attempt to trademark "DWG" must still be resolved by the US Patent and Trademark Office. I suspect that Autodesk was hoping to use the lawsuit to gain some new advantage in the trademark fight, but I think if anything they lost ground, so it will be interesting to see where the trademark fight goes.

I'm Crying Uncle

owenw@manusoft.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:05:00 GMT

The Autodesk v. SolidWorks case has exploded into a flood of filings since October, and I've been utterly unable to keep this site up to date. I have not yet decided whether to try to catch up by skipping the hundreds of essentially useless docket events (dozens of which are redacted or sealed), or just abandon it entirely. With sites like Groklaw gaining traction and popularity, I have less motivation and it unfortunately becomes more and more difficult to justify the time and expense of keeping this site updated. In the meantime, for those of you wishing to get an update on where things currently stand, Rebecca Tushnet has posted an analysis of this case on her 43(B)log.

Vernor Wins

owenw@manusoft.com — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:37:00 GMT

The judge ruled for Vernor in a final summary judgement issued today. There is a lengthy examination of the facts in yesterday's ruling on some of the claims and counter claims, followed today by a short and sweet final adjudication that ends with "The court declares that Plaintiff’s sales of Defendant’s copyrighted AutoCAD software do not violate the Copyright Act to the extent Plaintiff acquired them in the manner described in the order. Defendant is hereby enjoined from asserting its rights under the Copyright Act as a basis for preventing or otherwise hindering Plaintiff’s sales of AutoCAD software."

PC World Reports on Vernor Hearing

owenw@manusoft.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:33:00 GMT

Nancy Gohring of IDG News Service reports in PC World about Monday's hearing in the Vernor case. From the article: "The two-hour hearing, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, was in response to motions for summary judgment filed by both sides. The judge can now rule for Vernor or for Autodesk or send the case to trial."

Autodesk Wins Round 2

owenw@manusoft.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:04:00 GMT

It's ostensibly just a small skirmish on the flank, but one can't help but be morbidly fascinated after reading the docket history of the battle between Autodesk and Open Design Alliance that took place in a Phoenix court this month. Autodesk essentially got what they wanted, and in the end ODA isn't much worse off than when they started - but there is a lot of drama packed into this short detour.

One can sense pandemonium in the ODA camp as court ordered deadlines loomed. On September 15, they submitted documents with missing attachments, then resubmitted with one correct and one incorrect attachment, then finally resubmitted again, only to get their wrists slapped for filing documents that they did not have permission to file in the first place. One wonders if the outcome might have been different were it not for "the abusive length of the motion for protective order" that the judge poignantly derides in his order.

Autodesk Wins Discovery Dispute

owenw@manusoft.com — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:34:00 GMT

Judge Alsup chose Autodesk's proposed language in an order settling the recent discovery dispute between Autodesk and SolidWorks.

Discovery Battle, Round 2

owenw@manusoft.com — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:02:00 GMT

In a June 23 hearing, Autodesk and SolidWorks attorneys argued over exactly which documents SolidWorks must provide to Autodesk. The judge issued verbal instructions, which the parties were to incorporate into a proposed order. The proposed order has now been submitted to the judge, but they still can't agree on the language. Interestingly, the proposed order includes the complete hearing transcript as an attachment, even though the transcript was not supposed to be released until September 21 under court guidelines.

Discovery Battle Brewing Between Autodesk and SolidWorks

owenw@manusoft.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Autodesk and SolidWorks are fighting over the production of documents in the discovery process (see 44 and 46). Both parties have asked the court to intercede. A hearing was held on June 26, but a transcript of the hearing will not be available via the internet until September 21. The recent announcement that ODA has been subpoenaed indicates that Autodesk was at least partially successful in the hearing.

ODA Threatened Again

owenw@manusoft.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:05:00 GMT

Evan Yares, former president of the ODA (Open Design Alliance), is looking for lead plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit related to ODA's recent decision to make changes in their membership agreement. If you were (or are currently) an ODA member, Evan asks that you contact him.

LT-Extender Lawsuit Settlement, Amnesty Program

owenw@manusoft.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:18:00 GMT

Autodesk announced last week that a settlement has been reached in a 2003 lawsuit against German software developer Torsten Moses. Autodesk charged Moses with copyright violations related to his LT-Extender software. This week, according to a German language email that I have obtained, Autodesk Gmbh in Munich is offering LT-Extender users a discounted crossgrade to AutoCAD along with a promise of legal amnesty if they take advantage of the offer by April 30.

These announcements have created a stir in Germany, where by many accounts the combination of AutoCAD LT and LT-Extender have been very popular. It is not clear whether the amnesty email was targeted specifically to LT-Extender customers, but the German language email includes the ominous statement (roughly translated):

Furthermore, the customer database of T. Moses has been seized by the authorities.
LT-Extender circumvents the built-in AutoCAD LT software locks and enables them in violation of copyright. LT-Extender violates the copyrights of Autodesk. The use of LT-Extender is therefore unlawful. Individual users and the companies whose employees use the LT-Extender must remove LT-Extender or risk prosecution. Managing Directors may be held personally liable for the unauthorized use of copyrighted works.

This is followed by the amnesty offer (roughly translated):

Since the developer of LT-Extender marketed it as a legitimate tool, some of our customers may have been unaware of the legal consequences.
To protect injured clients from further harm, we offer these customers a way to legal certainty and to acquire the functionality of AutoCAD. Autodesk will waive legal claims against customers who act within the amnesty period until 30 April 2009. To facilitate the transition for affected customers, Autodesk offers these customers until April 30, 2009 a comprehensive 30% discount on a legal crossgrade to AutoCAD or an AutoCAD vertical product, plus subscription.

The implication is clear: if you are using LT-Extender, you could be Autodesk's next target for prosecution. What isn't so clear is what exactly the German court found in this case. In comments on Ralph Grabowski's WorldCAD Access blog, Torsten Moses implies that the latest version of LT-Extender is not infringing. One possibility is that Moses saw that he was facing stiff penalties for earlier versions that were found to be infringing, and so agreed to hand over his customer list and cease distribution even of a non-infringing newer version in exchange for a reduction in fines.

Unless and until one or both parties to the lawsuit produce court documents, we can only guess about what legal findings were made, if any. Regardless of the facts, Autodesk is taking advantage of the opportunity to create some angst among the LT-Extender customer base, and no doubt convince many to purchase AutoCAD licenses.