Design software providers Autodesk and Dassault Systèmes resolved a legal dispute over trademark usage at the 11th hour this week, settling the claims just hours before a trial was set to begin.
In a statement released late Tuesday, Autodesk and Dassault’s SolidWorks unit announced that they had “agreed to dismiss all claims and have entered into a confidential settlement agreement.”
At issue was the use of the DWG file format and name. DWG is a specific method of saving design files, and its use as a file descriptor — i.e., “filename.dwg” — typically denotes compatibility with an Autodesk system. Autodesk asserted a trademark on the DWG format and claimed that SolidWorks had flouted Autodesk’s licensing program and used the DWG term without permission.
Among other complaints, the September 2008 lawsuit alleged that SolidWorks “improperly attracts Autodesk customers to the DS SolidWorks product offerings by using the term DWG in product names, domain names, and associated websites, which specifically target AutoCAD users.”