I did not pick it up on the newswires during the trading session, and as you know from Solv-Ex, I constantly am reviewing the newswires.
I do not believe enough people were aware of it during trading.
Tomorrow will better reflect the importance of this ruling, and will also clarify market awareness.
I am posting the release which is posted after the market:
Tuesday September 23 5:33 PM EDT
U.S. Appeals Court overturns Avant! ruling
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 23 (Reuter) - A federal appeals court Tuesday overturned a lower court's ruling that spared Avant! Corp(AVNT - news) from withdrawing a major portion of its software from sale pending a copyright infringement lawsuit by Cadence Design Systems (CDN).
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco held that a San Jose, Calif., trial judge erred when he took into account the ``devastating'' impact that would be felt by Avant! if he granted
Cadence's demand for prelimiary injunction against the sale of allegedly plagiarized software products.
Both companies sell software that helps engineers design the intricate layouts of computer chips.
Cadence sued Avant! for allegedly stealing some of its copyrighted source code to create new software products, including Aquarius-BV and Aquarius-XO.
In March, a trial court judge concluded that Cadence was likely to succeed at trial on its claim that the company's copyrighted source code was lifted by Avant!, but the judge decided to permit Avant! to continue to market its products and allow Cadence to proceed with a claim for monetary damages for lost sales.
But the federal appeals court said the trial court judge was wrong.
``The District Court erred by assuming that an injunction would be improper even if the Aquarius software infringed on Cadence's copyrighted source code,'' the appeals court wrote in the opinion
issued Tuesday.
The appeals court ruled that the judge's interpretation of the law would gut copyright actions by forcing companies into involuntary licensing agreemens with competitors they have sued for infringement.
Aside from reversing the trial court ruling, the appeals court also ordered the judge to consider blocking the sale of Avant!'s Aquarius software.
A spokesman for Avant! Corp declined comment on the appeals court's reversal because he said he had not yet seen a copy of the ruling. A spokesman for Cadence was not immediately available for comment.
Avant! was formed in 1991 when four engineers left Cadence to form their own company. Other Cadence employees also left for Avant, allegedly bringing with them chunks of Cadence programming.
Today has been a very good day. |
