Autodesk settles trademark dispute with Open Design Alliance

Autodesk reaches settlement in trademark dispute

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Autodesk Inc. has settled a 3-year-old trademark dispute over its DWG, or drawing, file format with the Open Design Alliance, a consortium of software developers and users that promotes open and standard formats for computer-aided design data.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Open Design Alliance will cancel its DWG-based trademark registrations with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and stop using DWG and DWG-based trademarks in marketing and branding. And Autodesk will abandon its efforts to cancel the Open Design Alliance’s DWG-based trademark registrations with the Patent Office.

Autodesk, based in San Rafael, makes 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. The company’s shares were down 5 cents at $31.04 Friday afternoon.

Autodesk said the settlement “focuses on avoiding customer confusion by non-Autodesk products’ use of DWG as a trademark without prior permission from Autodesk.”