CADopia Takes Down Its Flagship Product

I am keeping a close eye on the battle raging between the ITC and CADopia. Today I noticed that the CADopia web site was devoid of its flagship product. CADopia is no longer able to sell its variant of IntelliCAD since its ITC membership was terminated for failing to pay its membership fees. See “CADopia Maybe In Bigger Trouble Now“.

When news about a dispute between companies becomes public, as public as a press release can be, the affected company usually offers some sort of reassurance to its customers who may be left questioning the future of their investment. I could not find any such reassurance on the CADopia web site. I hope CADopia contacted its customers individually. Otherwise they run the risk of their customers falling prey to the FUD from their competition (see “News Alert – Autodsys Feeds Off CADopia“).

I have been speaking to people on both sides of the divide off the record and I can tell you that the situation is not pretty. I know of at least one good soul who tried to mediate between the two parties, but failed. Which brings me to an interesting question. The ITC membership agreement has an arbitration clause. I have been given to understand that the ITC didn’t exercise that option. Instead they directly took CADopia to court. I hope there was a good reason for doing that.

On the face of it, the dispute appears to be about money with both parties alleging that other other owes it money. The ITC is saying that CADopia owes it membership fees. CADopia CEO Surya Sarda is saying that the ITC has still not paid back the money that he loaned to it besides other expenses he incurred on behalf of the organization for years. I don’t know exactly when the ITC started paying salaries to its officers and which positions were voluntary (unpaid) and which were not. But as you can see the situation is messy when viewed from these extreme positions. I hope that it is not too late for both parties to find some middle ground from where they can start talking.

CADopia is a long standing IntellliCAD brand and these turn of events are saddening to say the least.