Back in November, I wrote about Auto-Dimensions suing several large CAD vendors and a handful of small firms. I thought I'd update you on what's been happening since then.
(Auto-Dimensions is suing over patents it bought up from a failing CAD vendor. The case involves commands like QDim in AutoCAD that automatically dimension entities. Similar commands are found in SolidWorks and Solid Edge. Auto-Dimensions is a shell company created by Acacia Research, a patent troll, so that if the three CAD vendors counter-sue, there is nothing to collect.)
Here are the updates:
By late November, Siemens PLM agreed to settle the patent law suit. I assume they are paying royalties on the patent. (See http://finance.yahoo.com/news/acacia-subsidiary-enters-settlement-agreement-110000279.html)
I don't know how anything more about the suit against Autodesk, except that they are being represented by Morrison Forrester of California.
Dassault Systemes, however, has (a) counter-sued Auto-Dimensions and a previous owner of the patent (Softech), and (b) has managed to have the law suit moved from the patent-lawsuit-happy jurisdiction of East District of Texas to the home state of Solidworks, Massachusetts. The judge agreed that the majority of the evidence lay up north, and so it would be more convenient to have the trial there. (See http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin/recentops.pl?filename=otoole/pdf/autodimensions%20v%20dassault%20disqualification%20motion.pdf.)
In filing its annual report last month, Arcacia admitted that its revenues fell significantly and that it in fact ran a loss last year. (See http://acaciaresearch.com/investor-relations .) Being pummeled by law suits from the likes of Dassault is a good thing; having Siemens pay up is a bad thing, because it helps the troll survive.
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