In a rare move, Chinese software developer ZWSoft is apologizes for stealing code from Autodesk’s AutoCAD software. When Autodesk sued ZWSoft for copyright infringement, the Chinese firm originally claimed that all the code in its ZWCAD+ had either been licensed, open sourced or developed internally and that it had passed muster with China’s official copyright agency. But now the company is saying that “an employee had, in fact, improperly used AutoCAD intellectual property when developing ZWCAD+ and concealed it from ZWSoft’s management team.”
The two companies have reached a settlement. ZWSoft has issued a statement saying, “We have stopped selling ZWCAD+ in all markets, and we retract all prior statements suggesting that Autodesk’s lawsuits lack merit and were brought for anti-competitive purposes. We sincerely apologize to Autodesk for the inconvenience that our actions have caused.”
