Avant! Corporation and eight of its current and former employees,
officers and directors are facing a rare criminal trial in a
Californian court on charges of conspiracy to commit trade secret
theft, actual trade secret theft, receiving stolen property and
securities fraud.
Avant! is a major developer of software for chip designers, with
65 offices in 18 countries. The criminal case against it began four
years ago and jury selection finally began on Monday. The case
alleges that the company and certain employees stole several
hundred lines of source code from rival software developer Cadence
Design Systems and illegally used it in its products, acts that
allegedly made $200 million for Avant!
On conviction, each defendant could face up to 11 years
imprisonment and fines of $27 million. While civil lawsuits for
trade secret theft are not uncommon (Cadence is separately suing
Avant! over the same issues), criminal proceedings are very
rare.
