Cadence and Avant Settle Trade Secret Lawsuit

Cadence Design Systems, a manufacturer of computer chip design software, has reportedly agreed to a settlement of $265 million for dismissing all civil claims and counterclaims against its one-time rival, Avant, for trade secret theft.

The settlement of the civil case concludes a saga that began in 1994 with a criminal investigation of Avant and some of its employees for misappropriation and misuse of Cadence's chip design software source code in Avant products. Avant and eight of its employees were eventually charged and convicted in a separate criminal case for trade secret theft, conspiracy to commit trade-secret theft, receiving stolen property, and securities fraud.

In the criminal action, the judge ordered Avant to pay restitution of $182 million for the theft of Cadence's trade secrets, as well as retroactive interest for lost profits and attorney fees of Cadence equaling at least $200 million. This amount is on top of the amount agreed to in the civil settlement with Cadence, bringing Avant's hefty tab for wrongdoing to over $460 million. Avant has since been acquired by Snyopsys, a large chip design software manufacturer, and Synopsys will reportedly pay all of Avant's liabilities to Cadence before the end of this year.

In addition to the settlement, Cadence and Synopsys have agreed to enter into reciprocal licenses for the intellectual property of the litigation. "We are pleased to have settled this matter in a fair and reasonable manner," said Synopsys' CEO in a released statement. "We do not condone the actions taken against Cadence in the past by Avant and acknowledge the damage that it has caused to Cadence. Today's agreement puts this matter to rest for good."