Autodesk Found Guilty of IP Theft

Autodesk is guilty of patent infringement, a judge found yesterday, and is requiring the world's largest CAD company to pay US$18 million to David Colvin. The founder of z4 Technologies had sued Autodesk and Microsoft for using his anti-piracy technology without permission.

Micosoft has to pay up US$115 million, according to Reuters, even though the company insists it came up with the technology before Colvin patented it.

In the 1990s, Autodesk was also found guilty of IP [intellectual property] theft, after it hired an employee away from Vermont Microsystems, and then incorporated display-list technology into AutoCAD. Autodesk was initially charged $25 million, but an appeal reduced the judgment to US$8 million.

Both Autodesk and Microsoft are members of BSA, the anti-piracy organization.

Update

Over on slash.dot, neersign notes that, "...this guy's software doesn't work as millions of people have illegal copies of both Autodesk and Microsoft software."