Synopsys, Inc. voluntarily dismissed its complaint on October 11, 2011 as it acquired Extreme DA Corp.
Synopsys filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware on June 2, 2011 alleging trade secret misappropriation and interference with contractual obligations by its competitor, Extreme. Synopsys also asserted copyright and patent infringement allegations.
Synopsys and Extreme are both in the business of making timing analysis devices for the testing of semiconductors. Essentially, their products, “PrimeTime” and “GoldTime,” respectively, allow the computation of the expected speed of a digital circuit without the need to run a simulation.
According to Synopsys, prior to the development of PrimeTime, timing analysis was a time consuming effort and required a great amount of dedication from design teams. PrimeTime, using Synopsys’ proprietary information, significantly improved upon that task.
The complaint alleges that Extreme has taken the advances that Synopsys’ engineers have incorporated into PrimeTime and misappropriated them for use in their own GoldTime system. Synopsys notes that PrimeTime features “literally hundreds” of proprietary features that are not generally known and thereby grant a competitive edge. Additionally, these features are only disclosed to Synopsys customers when shielded by strict confidentiality obligations, and user manuals contain proprietary rights notices warning against unauthorized disclosure.
Synopsys alleges that Extreme gained unauthorized access to this proprietary information by purposefully breaching the PrimeTime end user license agreement (EULA) and by disrupting Synopsys’ contractual secrecy arrangements with its customers.
On its trade secrets claim, Synopsys has requested permanent injunctive relief preventing the further use of its trade secrets as well as any further actions intended to induce Synopsys customers to breach their non-disclosure agreements. In addition, it is requesting “compensatory, special, incidental and consequential damages according to proof” and attorneys’ fees.