!!! "It's not a BUG, 
/o o\ / it's a FEATURE!" (508) 429-4357
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\ - / INDUSTRY GADFLY: "Teeth"
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by John Cooley
Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222
A few weeks ago, in ESNUG 443 #2, Synopsys Legal rocked the EDA world when
it issued an implied threat that it could sue Magma users if Synopsys wins
its patent lawsuit against Magma. Understandably, ESNUG 444 was all
about user reactions to this news.
Long story short, the consensus was that there's no way Synopsys would
do this. The respondants in that ESNUG post pointed out all the foolish
legal and business problems Synopsys would encounter if they tried such
a silly tactic. On top of this, a San Francisco lawyer chimed in saying
that this had never been done before in the EDA industry, indeminity is
part of almost every EDA licensing contract, and that such threats are
pretty much toothless FUD designed to mess with "upstart" competitors.
That is, overall it appeared that this was just Synopsys Legal messing
with people's heads and that there was really nothing for EDA users to
worry about in this lawsuit.
That was until I checked my email.
From: Ivan Pesic <ivan.pesic=user domain=silvaco spot bomb>
Hi, John,
That letter the lawyer, Donald Putterman, sent to you in ESNUG 444 #5
is flat out wrong.
"I personally am unaware of any company in the EDA industry
actually suing customers for using challenged software."
When Circuit Semantics, Inc. (CSI) stole my source code for SmartSpice
and repackaged it as their own DynaSPICE, they created liabilty for
themselves and all their customers. When the Santa Clara County
Superior Court issued the judgement finding CSI guilty of stealing our
code, within 9 months CSI closed its doors for business.
Now my Silvaco was screwed despite winning that judgement because the
ex-CSI customers were using over 12,000 copies of my stolen code.
Customers had permanent licenses of DynaSPICE. They were under no
pressure to replace it with a legit copy of SmartSpice. So here was
the question: how do I rightfully get my money back? The law provides
that I can sue CSI's old customers for damages because they profited
from using stolen code. Before doing this, I contacted all 39 of them
21 months ago. Immediately, 2 US, 2 European, and 2 Japanese customers
settled. That left 33 to go.
Then 5 months ago, I filed the latest of 10 lawsuits against Intel,
Agilent, Cypress, Cirrus, AMD, Specular Networks, Tau Networks,
NetLogic Microsystems, AMCC, and Tvia. Very quickly after filing, we
settled with Tau Networks. As we win these lawsuits we will add more
of the remaining ex-CSI customers to our damages recovery list in court.
This is not the law run amuck, John. These big guys like Intel, AMD,
and Cypress all whine in the press about China, India, and other
countries not respecting IP rights. At the same time, these same
people have no quarrel using my stolen code. And when I ask them to
pay for it, they told me to get lost! I have no other choice but
to bring them to court. I'm fighting for my livelihood here.
SmartSpice didn't just appear magically overnight by itself; I had an
engineering staff put in 200 man-years of work to create it since 1987.
This is my baby. CSI stole him, dyed his hair yellow and hoped that
I wouldn't recognize him. It's my right to bring him home!
Concerning more of what that lawyer said in ESNUG 444 #5:
"Almost all software license agreements include indemnification
language to protect the user against lawsuits or other losses
that might arise from use of the software. It's generally
pretty standard."
Indemnifications are good to have but they are not bulletproof. In
those situations where an EDA vendor goes out of business, like CSI did
in my case, their ex-customers are left hanging to defend themselves
and are exposed to the full legal liability. EDA users like to fool
themselves into thinking that indemnity removes their responsibility
from checking out what they're buying from an EDA vendor. Users can't
do that. If you're using stolen code, you will pay. It might take a
little time, but you will pay.
Regarding that anon user's comment in ESNUG 444 #2:
"If Synopsys' claims are true, then Magma is the one guilty of
patent infringement, not their customers. I'm no lawyer, but
I think Synopsys would have to make some pretty fancy legal
arguments to convince a judge that Magama's customers are
liable for Magma's actions."
From my understanding of the law, the recovery of damages from a
misappropriation of trade secrets case have to be prosecuted very
quickly because they have a short statute of limitations. (It's
something like 3 years, I think.) But with patents, Synopsys has an
advantage because recovery of damages in patent infringement cases
can be done over the 17 year life of the patent. This means Magma
customers will have a 17 year window to worry about, if Synopsys wins
this lawsuit.
And for those people who whined about lawsuits stifling innovation in
EDA, I have a very strong reaction. This is the same as catching a
drug dealer and a drug user. The drug user can not blame the drug
dealer for his guilt! To erradicate stealing in EDA, you need lawsuits
like this to eliminate the market for stolen EDA patents, source code,
trade secrets, and IP. These lawsuits only stifle stealing of
innovation, not innovation itself. This happened to just one of my
EDA products. I want to stomp on theft in our industry because I have
50 other products that could be stolen if I don't stomp on theft! I'm
doing this for my company's survival.
- Ivan Pesic, President
Silvaco International Santa Clara, CA
If what Ivan is saying is true (which I think it is; he's a No Bullshit
kind of guy), then there's a precedence here for customers being sued.
And it's even in the EDA industry. This means that the Synopsys' threat
has teeth! It's no longer an idle rant because it's been done before
and it can be done again.
Now the question is whether or not Synopsys would actually do it, if
Magma loses this high stakes lawsuit. Talk about interesting times...
-----
John Cooley runs the E-mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG), is
a contract ASIC designer, and loves hearing from engineers at
or (508) 429-4357.
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