EDA vendor sues China's ZTE, alleges software piracy

8/5/2010 11:16 AM EDT

It is interesting to me that AWR is attempting to protect their IP in China .. by filing a copyright infringement complaint in California. I'm not a lawyer but I assume that the goal here is more to try to embarrass ZTE rather than to collect any license fees or damages? I guess we will see how it plays out.

8/5/2010 11:53 AM EDT

I strongly support AWR's right to defend it's EDA software from being used without a license. ZTE should be made to pay for the full retail value of each stolen license, plus extra compensation for brazenly cheating.

ZTE should be embarrassed and should pay dearly for theft.

8/5/2010 1:43 PM EDT

There are definitely huge software piracy happening out in the world. Most of the times the big companies are able to settle these cases without any courts since the smaller companies involved in such piracy afraid to be dragged to court and pay huge fines. AWR would have already tried enough to settle it without going to court, but for some reason ZTE doesn't seem to be much worried about these allegations. Will be very interesting to see what happens ahead!!!

8/5/2010 5:18 PM EDT

That's right. Let's sue the hell out of ZTE in an African court too to embarrass them with the Somalis, where ZTE does a lot of business.

8/5/2010 5:26 PM EDT

I'm not a huge fan of EDA companies, but AWR's statement hits the nail on the head: "software piracy in the EDA market space can undermine the competitiveness of semiconductor, telecommunications and aerospace companies worldwide."
If ZTE can get away with reducing their cost structure compared to western companies by stealing the required software, the viability of those western companies (and the jobs of the engineers they employ) is threatened.

8/5/2010 5:38 PM EDT

To be fair, let's remember that AWR's complaint is just an accusation at this point. Neither the company or its employees have been found to have used the AWR tools illegally.

But to danlutes' point, I spoke today with Victor DeMarines, vice president of products at V.i. Labs, who made this point: Chinese companies are competing globally and if many of them are indeed illegally using software to build their businesses (as evidence suggests), then they have an advantage in the marketplace versus companies that pay for the stuff.

8/5/2010 6:46 PM EDT

Should be interesting to find out what "copyright protection mechanisms" were circumvented.

8/5/2010 9:26 PM EDT

I started to avoid this one...but I have to dive in. For the youthful among you...here's a news flash - China has a national intelligence policy that supports this very act. Learn your history and current events it may well protect your IP at a minimum, your job next, and your way of life over the next 20-40 years. China is nobody's buddy.

8/5/2010 11:31 PM EDT

If we can not win them in the market place, let's bring them into court, because the whole world knows Americans love to sue. Good luck AWR, you want the market, you deserve the risk.

8/6/2010 1:48 AM EDT

Sometime back I viewed an interview with MAGMA CEO, Rajeev Madhavan by John Cooley of DeepChip. He pointed out a similar incident. One major semi design house in China, bought 1 license from Magma and then churned out ~10+ chip tapeouts in first few months. Magma confronted them and found many engineers working on different designs with pirated versions of the tool. The interview is available somewhere in DeepChip.com

8/6/2010 4:32 AM EDT

It is really eye opening news for me, as a matter of fact ZTE is involved in India(my country)in several confidential assignments.Stolen license case has come up it shows the business ethics of such Chinese companies. Indian Govt. as well Corporate must learn lesson from this issue and keep such companies away........

8/6/2010 10:41 AM EDT

As a history lesson just remember when Avant! stole EDA source code from Cadence it all started out with a claim that had to be taken into court. Guilty as charged and ironically the fee was paid to Cadence by Synopsys (who acquired Avant!).

Many EDA firms rely upon FlexLM as their licensing tool however just a brief search on Google will quickly turn up dozens of rogue web sites that have cracked FlexLM allowing you to easily create unlimited licenses for almost all EDA tools (once you have installed one legit version).

8/6/2010 1:20 PM EDT

"ZTE owns no legal copies of AWR software, according to the complaint." quote from author. Isn’t that astonished? If it is true, ZTE’s service and/or product created by AWR software will be one of subject in legal action. It may be a huge volume….
And, they came to AWR training class to listen and ask questions. I guess that ZTE engineers didn’t know it is illegal copy or didn’t know it is a bad business practice. They may don’t have such a general culture or understanding about software/IP as a unique product. If it is, it is not going to easily changes within months or years.

I am not an expert for this kind of law. I am not sure ZTE will do any meaningful follow-up action from this filing in CA court.

8/6/2010 2:10 PM EDT

I've reviewed some of the details from AWR's complaint (and linked to the complaint itself) in my blog post here:

http://www.vilabs.com/blog/a-to-z-of-software-piracy-awr-vs-zte/

The allegations in the complaint are pretty specific and paint an interesting picture. The case definitely highlights that significant license revenue recovery opportunities exist when software vendors identify businesses that can and should pay for licenses.

Michael Goff
V.i. Labs

8/6/2010 4:54 PM EDT

Check out what Altium's Chairman had to say about the company's experience with piracy in China. One hopes things are getting better...maybe not.

http://www.edn.com/article/467089-Who_are_you_buying_your_EDA_software_from_.php

8/7/2010 9:55 AM EDT

Yes, interesting about this piracy that is present even in EDA. But what Electronic Design Automation means? Here is a videoclip: http://bit.ly/b4q4Ny

8/9/2010 6:34 AM EDT

Piracy is becoming a problem everywhere, it will be piracy at many places in EDA but it is very hard to find and prove it.
Let's see where this issue ends up in these two companies cases.

8/10/2010 1:54 PM EDT

havn't heard similar complaints from CDNS/SNPS. Can AWR redesign its software licensing so that multiple copies of its evaluation version can not be hijacked for normal use.

8/15/2010 7:17 AM EDT

MOST OF CHINA'S PRODUCTS ARE PIRATED AND HAVE SHORT LIVES.

8/15/2010 3:26 PM EDT

It's important to note that these are just allegations at this stage folks. Beyond this particular case, however, we all know that such practices are common place, and extend to all sorts of products and disciplines. I personally think these practices will dwindle away over time as companies from emerging countries (without naming any country in particular :-) ) start competing globally. You cannot be a respected global player in any field while engaging in piracy.

8/18/2010 2:06 AM EDT

It's common knowledge that piracy, even EDA software is huge in China and it should not come as a surprise. But it is mostly done by smaller companies who don't have a name in the international market. But ZTE hmm, wonder why would they take such risks. There might be some substance in this accusation else who would go to court without evidence. If ZTE violated piracy laws then instead of attacking ZTE the contenders should go after their customers, that will bring the wrongdoer to the table.