FBI Raids "Avant!" ("ArcSys") For Alleged Cadence Source Code Theft
John Cooley
newspaper reports that the FBI in conjunction with the San Jose police
department just raided "Avant!" (formerly "ArcSys") for allegedly
stealing Cadence source code via ex-Cadence employee named "Mitsuru Igusa."
The article outlines that Igusa, as a Cadence employee, allegedly e-mailed
Cadence proprietary source code to his home e-mail account and then worked
for "Avant!" as a consultant offering them the source code.
Avant!'s CEO, Gerry Hsu, is an ex-Cadence employee who left to join ArcSys
(which changed names to "Avant!" when ArcSys merged with ISS) and has had
an openly antagonistic relationship with its business rival Cadence. (The
most public display of this rivalary was when Gerry Hsu and Joe Costello
openly sparred with each other at last year's DAC Executive Panel on various
issues from market leadership to "wasting time in endless meetings.")
- John Cooley
Part Time EDA Consumer Advocate
Full Time ASIC, FPGA & EDA Design Consultant
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Bryan O'Sullivan
> Avant! denies all charges made in the complaint and will defend the
> complaint vigorously.
This should certainly be interesting to watch. From what I have been
told, if you run the "strings" command on certain Cadence and Avant!
binaries, you will even find the same typos in some of the strings
produced.
I also understand that the raid was intentionally timed to come three
days before Avant!'s upper echelons could legally sell their shares.
Koinkidenke? Or Konspirakii?
<b
--
Let us pray:
What a Great System.
Please Do Not Crash. b...@eng.sun.com
^G^IP@P6 b...@serpentine.com
Mitch Sako
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 7 -- Avant! Corporation stated that on
December 6, 1995, the Company was served with a civil complaint filed by
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. The complaint was filed in U.S. District
Court, Northern District of California, and names Avant!, Gerald C. Hsu, the
companys president and chief executive officer, as well as two employees
of the company. The complaint alleges copyright infringement, unfair
competition, and misappropriation of trade secrets as well as other claims.
The claims are based upon allegations by Cadence that Avant! improperly
used computer code belonging to Cadence in Avant! products. Relief sought
under the complaint includes an injunction against Avant! from further use
of any Cadence code as well as monetary damages including any profit
obtained by use of such code. The complaint also seeks punitive damages.
Avant! denies all charges made in the complaint and will defend the
complaint vigorously.
Avant! Corporation (Nasdaq:AVNT) develops, markets, and supports
integrated circuit design automation (ICDA) software for deep submicron
integrated circuits (ICs), microprocessors, microcontrollers, application-
specific standard products (ASSPs), and complex application-specific
integrated circuits (ASICs). Company headquarters are located in Sunnyvale,
California, telephone (408) 738-8881.
John Cooley (jco...@world.std.com) wrote:
: My friends in Silicon Valley have just reported that their local
: newspaper reports that the FBI in conjunction with the San Jose police
: department just raided "Avant!" (formerly "ArcSys") for allegedly
: stealing Cadence source code via ex-Cadence employee named "Mitsuru Igusa."
: The article outlines that Igusa, as a Cadence employee, allegedly e-mailed
: Cadence proprietary source code to his home e-mail account and then worked
: for "Avant!" as a consultant offering them the source code.
: Avant!'s CEO, Gerry Hsu, is an ex-Cadence employee who left to join ArcSys
: (which changed names to "Avant!" when ArcSys merged with ISS) and has had
: an openly antagonistic relationship with its business rival Cadence. (The
: most public display of this rivalary was when Gerry Hsu and Joe Costello
: openly sparred with each other at last year's DAC Executive Panel on various
: issues from market leadership to "wasting time in endless meetings.")
: - John Cooley
: Part Time EDA Consumer Advocate
: Full Time ASIC, FPGA & EDA Design Consultant
--
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Michael T. Horne
>ms...@netcom.com (Mitch Sako) writes:
>
>> Avant! denies all charges made in the complaint and will defend the
>> complaint vigorously.
>
And exactly who will benefit from the debacle? Certainly not Cadence's nor
Avant!'s customers.
Ah, yes -- if you can't win fairly in the marketplace, file a suit!
Mike
Victor A. Holen
[...]
>department just raided "Avant!" (formerly "ArcSys") for allegedly
>stealing Cadence source code via ex-Cadence employee named "Mitsuru Igusa."
Never mind the source code. Cadence owned some people who were stolen
by ArcSys (is servitude still legal in the US?)
Here is a very telling quote from Mecury News (Dec 8 '95):
---------------------------------------------------------------
"The people are the company" said Joe Costello, Cadence's chief
executive officer. "We do believe it was a sustained conspiracy
on the part of Avant! to steal products and people from us"
---------------------------------------------------------------
(Do not mistake this with "company is people". As you can see from
the second part of the quote, it was not a typo.)
Apparently, when FBI raided ArcSys they found many cube-shaped boxes
filled with stolen Cadence people. Most of them didn't speak english,
and FBI is presently looking for a Fortran translator. It seemed, that
at least some of the people, were stolen previously by Cadence from
other owners. Anybody with the information which could help to return
them to the first original owners is asked to call 1-900-DEC-ADENCE.
--
Regards,
victor ho...@netcom.com
Mitch Sako
: In a recent article b...@serpentine.com (Bryan O'Sullivan) writes:
: >ms...@netcom.com (Mitch Sako) writes:
: >
: >> Avant! denies all charges made in the complaint and will defend the
: >> complaint vigorously.
: >
: >This should certainly be interesting to watch.
: And exactly who will benefit from the debacle? Certainly not Cadence's nor
: Avant!'s customers.
Lawyers will benefit. Nobody else. <sigh>
: Ah, yes -- if you can't win fairly in the marketplace, file a suit!
: Mike
Harvey
>
> ms...@netcom.com (Mitch Sako) writes:
>
> > Avant! denies all charges made in the complaint and will defend the
> > complaint vigorously.
>
> told, if you run the "strings" command on certain Cadence and Avant!
> binaries, you will even find the same typos in some of the strings
> produced.
I would like to find/hear from someone who can (a) reproduce the
referenced STR command results, or (b) someone who can demonstrate a
failure to reproduce these results.
Cheers,