Autodesk is accusing SolidWorks of overusing its registered trademarks (AutoCAD and Autodesk) in advertising. The judge quickly found that it is okay for SolidWorks to refer to AutoCAD and Autodesk in its ads.
The judge found, however, that he was unsure if SolidWorks was overusing the two names, because a competitor can only use as much of a registered trademark as is reasonably necessary to identify it; and SolidWork's ads must not contain anything that might imply Autodesk endorses the claims made by the ads.
Any Version of DWG
Autodesk accuses SolidWorks of false advertising when SolidWorks says that its software saves to "any version of AutoCAD software." The claim is indeed false. Anyone familiar with the history of CAD knows that no software from SolidWorks saves to the file format used by AutoCAD v1.x. So let's see what the judge thinks:
SolidWorks used the defense of puffery to avoid the charge of false advertising. Puffery is alright if the claim doesn't fool the consumer. (Makes me think of all the press releases that claim the vendor is the leader in its field.) For instance, almost no one in the CAD industry needs to save drawings to AutoCAD v1.x format.
The judge had to decide if the claim of compatibility was false or puffery. In the end he decided the claim of "any version" could be tested (ie, is not a subjective untestable statement, like "more effectively") but that he did not have enough evidence to decide -- although he suspected that "any version" is false.
Thus, two marketing claims by SolidWorks will go to trial: "DWGgateway is the first free data translation plug-in that lets AutoCAD users work easily with DWG files created by any version of AutoCAD software" and "save DWG files to any version of AutoCAD software."
The judge found that a third marketing statement by SolidWorks was puffery: "DWGseries is a set of FREE software tools created for current and former AutoCAD users to open, edit, and share DWG data more effectively with others."
The judge found, however, that he was unsure if SolidWorks was overusing the two names, because a competitor can only use as much of a registered trademark as is reasonably necessary to identify it; and SolidWork's ads must not contain anything that might imply Autodesk endorses the claims made by the ads.
Any Version of DWG
Autodesk accuses SolidWorks of false advertising when SolidWorks says that its software saves to "any version of AutoCAD software." The claim is indeed false. Anyone familiar with the history of CAD knows that no software from SolidWorks saves to the file format used by AutoCAD v1.x. So let's see what the judge thinks:
SolidWorks used the defense of puffery to avoid the charge of false advertising. Puffery is alright if the claim doesn't fool the consumer. (Makes me think of all the press releases that claim the vendor is the leader in its field.) For instance, almost no one in the CAD industry needs to save drawings to AutoCAD v1.x format.
The judge had to decide if the claim of compatibility was false or puffery. In the end he decided the claim of "any version" could be tested (ie, is not a subjective untestable statement, like "more effectively") but that he did not have enough evidence to decide -- although he suspected that "any version" is false.
Thus, two marketing claims by SolidWorks will go to trial: "DWGgateway is the first free data translation plug-in that lets AutoCAD users work easily with DWG files created by any version of AutoCAD software" and "save DWG files to any version of AutoCAD software."
The judge found that a third marketing statement by SolidWorks was puffery: "DWGseries is a set of FREE software tools created for current and former AutoCAD users to open, edit, and share DWG data more effectively with others."
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