After ODA, who’s next on Autodesk’s radar?

With the courts granting a temporary restraining order against the ODA, I wonder if this is the beginning or is there more to follow?

I have been keeping a close watch on Dr. DWG , a division of California Software Labs. They offer DWG read, write and view libraries similar to ODA’s DWGdirect libraries. Probably not as exhaustive as the DWGdirect libraries but light weight and easy to use. These libraries support the DWG version upto 2006. Interestingly they have not yet released an update for DWG 2007. That may be either because they have not yet reverse engineered it or because of precisely the same reason which the ODA finds itself in trouble today.

Autodesk has tried to trademark the word “DWG”. Evan Yares has an interesting article on that. In fact on Autodesk’s “Legal Notices & Trademarks” page, DWG is listed along with quite interesting guidelines of usage, part of which I am listing here:

You should not adopt or use product, service, or company names that could cause confusion about affiliation with or endorsement by Autodesk. Do not, for example, cite to the DWG name or to any other Autodesk trademark at the beginning of, or otherwise as the most prominent part of, your product, service or company name.

You should maintain a visual distinction between your company and product name, on the one hand, and DWG or any other Autodesk trademark, on the other. For example, Acme Co.’s “ALPHABETA for DWG” is permissible.

You should not create or use any logos that include DWG or any other Autodesk trademark unless your use is pursuant to a license from Autodesk. For example, you should not create your own DWG compatibility logo without permission from Autodesk.

You should not register any Internet domain names incorporating DWG, unless such domain names are not misleading or confusing and unless there is clear and conspicuous trademark attribution to Autodesk on the homepage of the corresponding website.

In Dr. DWG’s best interest, they had better not come up with DWG 2007 (with or without the RealDWG feature) untill this storm has blown over.