A Sense Of Desperation???
September 25, 2008 13 Comments
There is something very interesting going on in the world of CAD right now. Autodesk has filed suit against DS SolidWorks over 7 different things.
- Unfair competition
- False designation of origin
- False advertising
- Trademark infringement
- Trade dress infringement
- Unfair and unlawful business practices
- Misleading advertising
To get a better idea of what is going on in this lawsuit you can see the official court document (all 24 glorious pages of it) that comes straight from the Autodesk website. Check it out here:
http://www.autodesk.com/us/solidworks/Document.pdf
You can also check out Ralph Grabowski’s take on this lawsuit at his blog. Check it out here:
WorldCAD Access: ADSK vs. SolidWorks Battle Moves To Courtroom
CONCLUSION
To start off, I see this as an extremely desperate attempt from Autodesk! From what Ralph said a lot of this is stemming from DS SolidWorks using the DWG name or extension which is widely known because of AutoCAD. SolidWorks using this suffix in its DWGeditor and DWGgateway products is out of line according to Autodesk. Supposedly this issue has been brought up to no avail in the past so it is interesting why this is coming up again. If you visit Ralph’s blog article (see above) be sure you read the comments after the article, they are very interesting and give you a good idea of how some of the users feel out there. As 1 commentator put it “…Does this whole effort make Autodesk look like a petulant child? Yes. But apparently in this case, Autodesk isn’t too worried about perceptions of the common folk.” What Autodesk may be missing in this whole thing is that the common folk are their customers, the ones that are keeping their business going.
For what it’s worth I think that Autodesk should maybe spend more of their time working on developing their software and making it the best that they possibly can instead of filing petty lawsuits against the company that seems to be running away with the 3D CAD market. Now remember, this is coming from a diehard SolidWorks user but I would imagine that it would not be too hard to find a few Autodesk users out there that feel this whole thing is ridiculous also. That is all I am going to say on this for now but pay attention to this situation, it could get ugly real quick.
Please feel free to leave comments about your feelings on this lawsuit.
Thanks to Lou Gallo for informing me about this situation.
I skimmed through the court document yesterday. Seems as if AutoDesk was using the first few pages for advertising. I do agree that is seems that they are trying to slow down Solidworks in the 3D market. Even though from the numbers of seats of Inventor seem to be outstripping Solidworks, is anyone really using all of them? I have read a number of cases where companies have initially installed Inventor then replaced it with Solidworks within a few years.
Our company chose Solidworks over Inventor at the beginning even though we has used AutoCAD for 13+ years. At the time, it did not equal Solidworks.
Thanks for the comments Rod. I thought the same thing last night when I looked through the court documents, it seemed to be a lot of advertising.
Our company also used AutoCAD for 10+ years before we decided to go to the world of 3D. I personally looked into Inventor 1st and then SolidWorks and Inventor really could not hold a candle to what SolidWorks could offer us.
Some time, if you get a chance, ask Brian McElyea from CADFanatic about Inventor and SolidWorks. Interesting story how they originally used Inventor and then switched to SolidWorks.
Have a great day.
I have a question. Now, I realized this may seem simplistic or obvious, but it’s actually very important from a legal standpoint:
What does DWG mean?
My point exactly! If it means drawing (the obvious I would think) then don’t all CAD platforms have a tool to create drawings.
Like I said, PETTY NONSENSE!
Now are you sure that DWG means drawing?
If so, what do these extensions mean?
DGN
ICD
IDW
MDF
SLDDRW
TCW
DFT
It’s product recognition in the simplest form. If Autodesk was touting a new reader called “SLDDRW Annihilator” do you think SW would sit back or go tease their lawyers with bags of money and stir them up into a drooling, snarling, panting pack of dogs then go open the doors to so they can head East. As they leave the building Ray hollers at them “You avenge us boys, bring back them letters”.
MDB,
I don’t know for sure if DWG means drawing but it would seem like the logical choice, does it not??? I am just saying that this whole deal is kind of ridiculous.
According to http://www.filext.com here are the programs that use DWG file extensions
AutoCAD Drawing Database
2D Graphic
BravoDRAFT, Detailer
Drafix Drawing
Older Generic CADD Drawing Format
Pro/ENGINEER Drawing
If this is all true why is it OK for Pro/ENGINEER to use this file extension and not have a problem with SolidWorks having a program called DWGeditor. Maybe SolidWorks is targeting Pro/ENGINEER drawings. I am just questioning this and I am looking for an unbiased answer.
Here is another list of applications which are used .dwg file extension. Michal
Native Pro/E drawings carry a DRW extension. I saw the extension at http://www.filext.com as well. My only thought on the reason it was there was because Pro/E like SoliWorks, SolidEdge and Inventor can open DWG files.
Notice how easy it is to “drawing” with both DWG and DRW?
Mike
When I asked what “DWG” means, I was being serious. DWG is, at least according to ASME Y14.38 and BS 8888, the abbreviation for “drawing”.
Autodesk claims, to the USPTO and the European trademark agency, that DWG does not mean drawing. This despite the fact that in the file/open dialog of most all Autodesk programs the “file of type:” pulldown menu lists “Drawing (*.DWG)”
Why say that DWG doesn’t mean drawing? Because Autodesk is claiming that the term has gained a secondary meaning — which is the only basis under which the authorities will let them register it as a trademark, as its primary meaning is generic (and generic terms can’t be trademarks.)
If someone knows of another meaning for DWG (in the context of CAD), I’d be really interested to hear it.
Incidentally, DGN, ICD, IDW, MDF, SLDDRW, TCW, DFT, and, for that matter, DWF, all differ from DWG in that none of them are generic abbreviations. (This is also the reason why abbreviations such as DOC, TXT, EXE, and DLL can’t be registered as trademarks — because they are generic abbreviations.)
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As fruitless at this is, I don’t think it is wise for AutoDesk to get SolidWorks angry. The DWG Series is a group of tools made by SolidWorks that SHOULD have been made by AutoDesk. They are tools provided to SolidWorks and AutoDesk customers alike that AutoDesk either can’t or won’t provide to their customers themselves.
Besides, doesn’t every CAD company realize that US Patent #5,815,154 owned by SolidWorks Corporation is their patent for the Feature Manager….which is something that EVERY 3D CAD system currently employs and is, to date, a technology patent that SolidWorks has not legally enforced?
Sueing SW over the use of a universal abbreviation and the way SolidWorks uses ‘similar colors’ on their website and literature certainly falls in the ‘desparation’ catagory. AutoDesk better hope they didn’t just wake the sleeping beast…..otherwise THEY might actually have to invent some new technology for once.
Here’s a question for thought; if you go to the following link http://www.opendesign.com/member_list you will see a list of the members of The Open Design Alliance of which SolidWorks® is a member per the site. You can read further in the history of OpenDWG that “Visio Corporation (now part of Microsoft® Corporation)” ” determined that the DWG format should become an open standard, with multiple vendors able to read and write these files without fear of data loss.” So why then is SolidWorks® being singled out? Does this mean that Autodesk is afraid of ALL OF THE OTHER DOGS IN THE POUND? Perhaps they should have started with Microsoft? BILLY WOULD NOT BE SO HAPPY, ME THINKS! Or is it that SolidWorks® just scares them? It is getting near HOLLOWEEN.
JBM
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