Some AVANT legal highlights: (only highlights are included, all from Lexis)
HEADLINE: Trial Court Should Have Enjoined Sale Of Software, 9th Circuit
Rules
......After suit was filed, Avant! undertook a "clean room " process, attempting to remove the allegedly infringing portions of code, then hired an independent consultant to examine the infringing code, then created specifications based on the Cadence code from which Avant! could write original code as a substitution. Avant!' s engineers then created new code to replace the copied code, calling the modified software Aquarius......... "In this circuit, as well as in other circuits, " the court said, "a defendant who knowingly infringes another's copyright 'cannot complain of the harm that will befall it when properly forced to desist from its infringing activities. . . .' The balance of hardships issue cannot be accorded significant if any weight in determining whether a court should enter a preliminary injunction to prevent the use of infringing material in cases where, as here, the plaintiff has made a strong showing of likely success on the merits. " ......... "If the Aquarius software infringes Cadence's copyright, the district court should have entered an order preliminarily enjoining Avant! from selling the software. "
July 1, 1997
ÿOn the first day of the DAC, Avanti Corporation filed a motion in the Santa Clara Municipal Court asking that the Santa Clara County District Attorney be disqualified from prosecuting criminal charges against officers of Avanti for theft of software from Cadence Design Systems...... Avanti's lawyers also alleged that Cadence CEO Joe Costello, former Cadence employee Eric Nequist, and former vice president Michelle Perotta, whom the motions characterized as Costello's "girlfriend, " had shorted Avanti's stock prior to a December 5, 1995 search of Avanti's offices by criminal investigators..... On the matter of insider trading, the spokesman said, "There is not, nor has there ever been, an SEC investigation of Cadence or its employees about this matter. " Sounds like material for a daytime soap opera.
June 1997
Copyright 1997 Andrews Publications, Inc. ÿ
White-Collar Crime Reporter
SECTION: Vol. 11; No. 6; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 440 words
HEADLINE: AVANT! PRINCIPALS HIT WITH CRIMINAL TRADE SECRET THEFT CHARGES
BODY:
ÿÿThe Santa Clara County District Attorney has filed felony trade secret theft charges against seven high-level employees of Avant! Corp. , who are accused of stealing a competitor's circuit design software and using it to develop competing products. People of the State of California v. Avant! Corp. et al., No. ÿDA 970409515 (CA Mun. Ct., Santa Clara Cty. Jud. Dist., San Jose, charges filed April ÿ11, 1997). ........ Named as defendants in the criminal complaint are, in addition to
Avant!: Chih-Liang Cheng; Yun-Chung Eric Cho; Gerald Chien-Kuo Hsu;
Shiaoli Leigh Huang; Igusa; Yuh-Zen Liao; and Stephen Tzyh-Lih Wuu. |
