It appears that Autodesk has not given up attempting to register DWG as a trademark in the European Union.
June 3: a letter from the EU's trade marks department:
The Office informs you that the above indicated application DWG has been refused on 07/05/2008 (the applicant has a right to appeal against this decision from that date).
I find it fascinating that the decision was made on May 7, and then it took nearly a month to write the letter letting the applicant know.
Another point of interest: the letter is addressed to Autodesk in San Rafael, California, Estados Unidos (De America). Some conspirists might see this as creeping Spanish bi-bilingualism, but the reason for the Spanish spelling is that the office of European trademark department is located in Spain.
July 2: Autodesk's attorney turns down his right to appeal:
The Applicants are no longer interested in the further prosecution of the above-numbered [4703641] application and in the circumstances, it is respectfully requested that the same be treated as withdrawn.
July 8: Opposition closed, and the CTM [community trade mark] is withdrawn. Autodesk's attempt to register DWG in Europe had been challenged by:
- Knowledge Base Software -- on grounds of (1) earlier sign, and (2) right to prohibit use of later TM under national law.
- SolidWorks-- on the grounds of (1) identity of marks, goods & services, and (2) likelihood of confusion.
This EU Web page provides a summary of the status of all DWG-related trademarks being applied for in Europe:
- REALDWG by Autodesk -- unopposed.
- TRUSTEDDWG by Autodesk -- opposed by Safelayer Secure Communications of Spain on grounds of likelihood of confusion, but I found no use of TrustedDWG by Safelayer.
Not that Autodesk is the only trademark victim. SolidWorks is attempting to register:
- DWGGATEWAY -- opposed by Autodesk for likelihood-of-confusion.
- DWGDITOR -- opposed by Autodesk for reasons of (1) earlier non-registered trademark and (2) right to prohibit use of later trademark under national law.
Update
July 3: The day after the first lawyer abandoned the appeal, Autodesk hires new lawyers. Field Fisher Waterhouse sends the EU trademark office the Notice of Appeal.
July 10: EU trademark office says it doesn't care if Autodesk has new lawyers, and is doubtful the appeal can be re-opened:
Therefore, the appeal is likely deemed to be inadmissable.
Nevertheless, the trademark office invites Autodesk to send comments within the next two months.
Unfortunately, instead of concentrating on developing better 3D CAD software by listening to Customers' requests, Autodesk is just trying to 'muscle' having its way of doing business. Wish those money spent on litigation were put to better use towards developing a better Inventor with good 2D associative functionality. If 2D inside Inventor were to become popular, then, why this fight over DWG?
SolidWorks has had better control over DWG files than Inventor. Also it is years ahead, in terms of functionality and user-driven capabilities. DWGEditor is an excellent alternative for plain vanilla AutoCAD. Suddenly AutoCAD is not as popular anymore. No wonder there are legal escape routes, being explored.
A better-developed Inventor would be a worthy competitor to SolidWorks. Competition always helps customer ending up being the winner. Alas that would be too common-sense friendly right?
Posted by: Natarajan Ramamoorthy | Jul 15, 2008 at 09:44 AM