Orange Rectangles

Today Ralph Grabowski has reported on the outcome of what many would consider a frivolous case between Autodesk and SolidWorks regarding orange rectangles. Autodesk has supposedly been paying a bunch of top lawyers good money to convince a judge that SolidWorks’ use of orange rectangles along with the word “real” amounts to “false destination of origin” about their products.

I would love to meet someone at Autodesk who truly believes that a prospective customer would look at an orange rectangle and the word “real” in a SolidWorks advertisement or product packaging and come to the conclusion that SolidWorks is an Autodesk product. Obviously there is something more that meets the eye here in this law suit. At least, I hope there is. Otherwise it goes to show the kind of legal advice Autodesk management is getting from their presumably well paid lawyers.

I wonder what Autodesk customers think about all this.