Dassault Threatens Siemens Over Customer List

Dassault Systemes reports that a list of 3,000 its customers found its way onto the intranet of Siemens PLM Systems. Siemens has returned the list and promised to destroy copies.

Not good enough, Dassault responded:

An internal audit conducted by Dassault Systèmes demonstrated that the above information was properly protected, and therefore Dassault Systèmes deeply regrets that information obtained illegally could be found on a competitor’s intranet, and reserves the right to any action it deems appropriate to enforce its rights.

The trade secret violation involved contact info on 3,216 customers located in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

At the same time, parent company Siemens continues to face prosecution in Germany for $2-billion worth in bribes paid to win contracts.

Update

The New York Times reports that the info was more than just lists of customers:

The [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung] newspaper  said -- and Dassault confirmed -- that the data had included organizational charts, price lists and the cost of software maintenance for individual customers.

By knowing what Dassault charges specific customers, a competitor could undercut pricing in hopes of landing the account.

Dassault thinks one of its former employees took the data, hoping it would land him a job with Siemens. 

According to the International Herald Tribune, Siemens denies trade secrets were involved:  "The allegation that a list of names of companies was a trade secret owned by Dassault could not be confirmed," said Siemens.

The two had earlier come to an out-of-court settlement, and so Siemens was surprised when Dassault now issued a press release on the matter. Perhaps Siemens posting the data on its internal intranet -- instead of handing it back -- may have lead to Dassault now threatening further court action.

Comments

[Bash Outsourcing]

Its interesting that no reader seems to have noticed the irony of (presumably) a Frenchman stealing proprietary customer info - far more lethal than source code -from a French company in France and giving (selling?) it to a German company. If the same had been done by an employee of a company in Asia that's doing outsourced software development for the same French company, all hell would have broken loose, dont you think? You would have heard all the 'smart' folks all over the western world talk about how 'outsourcing' is a huge threat for 'intellectual property'. No? Speak up, ladies & gentlemen.

[R. Paul Waddington]

"High tech espionage or just clumsy handling of sensitive info?", it had to be one of these, a person showing some intent or,
was it simply that De'Salt use 'A Desk' product and Zeemans has managed to use CIP to mine and transmit the data? ;-)

Pass the popcorn indeeeeeed ;-)

[Steve Johnson]

Ah, a good old mud-slinging contest, what fun! I don't care who wins, but somebody pass me the popcorn. I have a couple of questions:

- How do you "return" a list that's presumably an electronic copy?

- How does Dassault know what's on Siemens' intranet?

Finally, I should point out that stating that an allegation "could not be confirmed" is not at all the same thing as a denial.

[KennethWong]

High tech espionage or just clumsy handling of sensitive info? I'm waiting for the sequel to this mystery. :-)