Attorney Steve® Software Defense - Siemens Lawsuits February 2023. If you received a notice of infringement, or subpoena notice from your ISP, call us at (877) 276-5084. We have helped many clients in the past several lawsuits filed by Siemens.
Introduction
Click here to review the entire complaint.
.Siemens has been quiet for some time, but a review of the federal court docket shows they are back in action, filing another mass joinder copyright infringement case, once again in their home court of Texas. Not all the Defendants are from Texas, however, and this raises potential jurisdictional defenses. The case has been filed as:
Case 4:23-cv-00498 filed on 02/10/23 in TXSD. The following is the legal counsel bringing the case:
Katherine Mary Geldmacher (attorney)
Reed Smith LLP
811 Main Street Suite 1700
Houston, TX 77002
USA
ISP's at ISSUE: Charter and Comcast
This blog will provide an update as to where the action currently stands. In this case, they are seeking to identify 268 defendants, and they look at each case separately as far as settlement is concerned.
New cases filed (if your IP address is on this list call us to discuss representation)
Here is a list of the new IP addresses that have been sued. At this stage in the case, all they have are IP addresses, and they will then seek to unmask and learn the identity of these defendants. The alleged infringers may consist of a single user (ex. an engineer), or an entire company. Obviously, they would prefer to find large unlicensed entities, but their dragnet usually sweeps in both.
Sample Allegations
Here are a few snippets from the complaint. To view the entire complaint, click on the link above:
Plaintiff Siemens Industry Software Inc. (“SISW” or “Plaintiff”), formerly Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc., is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware, with its principal place of business in the State of Texas.
SISW manufactures and distributes Product Lifecycle Management (“PLM”) software, which allows companies to efficiently manage the entire lifecycle of a product from its ideation, design and manufacture, through its service and disposal. PLM software combines computer-aided design (“CAD”), computer-aided manufacturing (“CAM”), computer-aided engineering (“CAE”), product data management (“PDM”) and digital manufacturing. By providing the application depth and breadth needed to digitally author, validate and manage the detailed product and process data, PLM supports innovation by its customers.
NX 7, NX 8, NX 9, NX 10, NX 11, NX 12, NX 1847, NX 1855, NX 1867, NX 1880, NX 1892, NX 1899, NX 1904, NX 1907, NX 1911, NX 1915, NX 1919, NX 1926, NX 2206 and Mechatronics Concept Designer (collectively “NX”) software are among the PLM software products offered by Plaintiff. NX software offers the industry's broadest suite of integrated, fully associative CAD/CAM/CAE applications. NX touches the full range of development processes in product design, manufacturing and simulation, allowing companies to encourage the use of best practices by capturing and reusing product and process knowledge.
Solid Edge software, including Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology, is also among the PLM products offered by Plaintiff. Solid Edge is an industry-leading mechanical design system with exceptional tools for creating and managing 3D digital prototypes. Solid Edge modeling and assembly tools enable Plaintiff's customers' engineering teams to easily develop a full range of products, from single parts to assemblies containing many components. Tailored commands and structured workflows accelerate the design of features common in specific industries and ensure accurate fit and function of parts by designing, analyzing and modifying them within the assembly model. Solid Edge is a unique mainstream mechanical system that merges design management capabilities with the CAD tools that designers frequently use. With superior core modeling and process workflows, a unique focus on the needs of specific industries and fully integrated design management, Solid Edge helps guide projects toward an accurate design solution.
Star CCM software is another PLM product offered by Plaintiff. Star CCM is an advanced engineering simulation software program that offers a complete multi-physics solution for the simulation of products and designs that captures the physics that influences the real-world performance of products.
Femap software is another PLM product offered by Plaintiff. Femap is an advanced engineering simulation software program that creates finite element analysis models of complex engineering products and systems and displays solution results. Femap can virtually model components, assemblies, or systems and determine the behavioral response for a given operating environment. Using Femap's digital simulation capabilities, one can predict and improve product performance and reliability, reduce time-consuming and costly physical prototyping and testing, evaluate different designs and materials, and optimize designs and reduce material usage.
FloTHERM software is a PLM product offered by Plaintiff. FloTHERM is a design development software that allows users to predict the airflow and heat transfer in and around electronic equipment. FloTHERM allows Plaintiff's customers to keep pace with design changes during product development.
Simcenter Testlab software is another PLM product that comprises a suite of integrated testing, analytics, and modeling tools that allows users to test prototypes and collect large amounts of data on prototype performance.
Jack software is a human modeling and simulation software tool that allows users to populate product design models with virtual humans performing human factors for the purpose of ergonomic analysis of virtual products and virtual work environments. 15. SISW software, including NX, Solid Edge, Femap, Star CCM, Simcenter Testlab, Jack, and FloTHERM, constitutes and contains SISW's valuable intellectual property that has been developed over many years through the investment of substantial resources. To protect its rights and interests in its valuable software, including but not limited to its NX, Solid Edge, Femap, Star CCM, FloTHERM, Simcenter Testlab, and Jack software, SISW obtains and registers copyrights to its works. SISW is, and at all relevant times has been, the copyright owner under United States.
Plaintiff is informed and believes that each Defendant, without permission or consent of Plaintiff, has used, and continues to use, a computer with an Internet connection to download and/or use certain of the Copyrighted Software. In doing so, each Defendant has violated Plaintiff's exclusive rights of reproduction and/or distribution. Each Defendant's actions constitute infringement of Plaintiff's copyrights and/or exclusive rights under copyright.
A motion for early discovery has been filed
Because Plaintiff Siemens does not know the identity of the Doe Defendants, they are requested early discovery to serve a subpoena on the ISP for each IP address. This will garnish the SUBSCRIBERS name and address. However, just because someone is a subscriber, does not automatically mean they are the INFRINGER.
The Order for early discovery has been GRANTED by the Judge, per usual.
What is a "John Doe" Defendant in copyright litigation?
What are they seeking?
Per their complaint:
WHEREFORE, Plaintiff prays for judgment against each Defendant as follows:
1. For an injunction providing:
“Defendant shall be and hereby is enjoined from directly or indirectly infringing Plaintiff's rights under federal or state law in the Copyrighted Software, whether now in existence or later created, that is owned or controlled by Plaintiff (or any parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of Plaintiff) (“Plaintiff's Software”), including without limitation by using and/or downloading any of Plaintiff's Software, except pursuant to a lawful license or with the express authority of Plaintiff. Each Defendant also shall destroy all copies of Plaintiff's Software that the Defendant has used and/or downloaded onto any computer hard drive or server without Plaintiff's authorization and shall destroy all copies of that downloaded software transferred onto any physical medium or device in Defendant's possession, custody, or control.”
2. For statutory damages for each infringement of each Copyrighted Software pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 504;
3. For actual damages according to proof;
4. For an accounting of the use and/or download by each Defendant of the Copyrighted Software;
5. For an accounting of any revenues and profits realized by or through each Defendant's use and/or download of the Copyrighted Software;
6. For enhanced damages;
7. For Plaintiff's costs in this action;
8. For Plaintiff's reasonable attorneys' fees incurred herein;
and
9. For such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.
If found liable following a jury trial (which they have requested) a Defendant could be liable for substantial damages. Corporate owners need to understand that officers and directors can at times be held personally liable for software infringement.
Copyright Infringement Damages Explained by Attorney Steve®
Summons and complaint will be served on Defendants shortly.
The next action for potential defendants is that they will receive a notice of the ISP subpoena from Charter or Comcast. Then, a copy of the summons (which calls the Defendant into court) and a complaint (I have attached a copy of the complaint - see link above).
Once served, you will have 21 days to respond to the complaint by filing either a motion to dismiss (ex. lack of personal jurisdiction), or an answer to the complaint (this is most common). From here, most cases will be reviewed for settlement potential. This is where our firm comes in. In this niche area of copyright law, experience matters.
Contact a Federal Software Infringement Defense Law Firm
Our firm is a clear leader in Copyright Software Infringement Defense in the United States. We have handled nearly a 1,000 software related disputes, audits, license compliance issues, and federal court litigation. For the past two years (2020 and 2021 - and most likely repeating in 2022) Vondran Legal® has been identified by Unicourt.com as the #1 Copyright infringement defense law firm in the US in terms of number of litigation cases handled. We take this honor very seriously.
For more information about representation, contact us at (877) 276-5084 or fill out our contact form. We have a unique flat rate fee pricing structure that makes having legal representation affordable.
We have been previously admitted to the Texas Federal Court.
