Scott & Scott, LLP has a dedicated practice group focusing on defending companies accused of software license violations. Below are some of the cases our firm has been involved with.

Consulted with global healthcare company and its subsidiaries against aggressive settlement demands following software-licensing inquiries from Informatica. Assisted the client in researching and evaluating relevant factual information and contractual provisions to rebut Informatica's findings and in formulating an acceptable settlement that avoided more than half of the exposure associated with the original demands. Principal issues addressed included the identification of relevant Informatica Product Description Schedules, the interpretation of unclear licensing rules contained in those schedules, and the meaning and relevance of vague terms from agreements that predated Informatica's acquisition of a legacy vendor.


Represented Washington state-based managed services and cloud provider regarding Microsoft licensing requirements and responses to audit findings and information requests in a SPLA audit matter. Principal issues addressed included identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, as well as application of changing license metrics for Windows Server and the implications of those changes to the client's audit-related financial exposure. Assisted the client with evaluation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Consulted with Kansas-based industrial manufacturer against misleading and erroneous audit findings in an Oracle software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in researching and evaluating relevant factual information and contractual provisions to rebut Oracle's findings and in formulating an acceptable settlement that avoided the vast majority of the original monetary demands. Principal issues addressed included the mis-identification and mis-characterization of the client's existing full-use and limited-use licenses, application of duplicative license metrics to product deployments, and unused Oracle Database options.


Consulted with Missouri-based commercial banking company against misleading and erroneous audit findings in an IBM software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information to rebut audit findings and in formulating appropriate settlement proposals. Principal issues addressed included the auditors' failure to recognize licenses owned by the client, the auditors' failure to recognize bundled product deployments not requiring incremental licensing, tracking the transition of owned licenses from legacy license metrics to current license metrics, erroneous usage reporting generated by the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT), and inadvertent product deployments.


Consulted with Texas-based company in responding to a Citrix software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with third-party auditors hired by Citrix, gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, and reviewing and vetting draft audit findings, ultimately resulting in no material compliance findings. Principal issues addressed included careful definition and management of audit scope, internal analysis of audit materials prior to submission to auditors, identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, and application of Citrix's product-support policies.


Represented Pennsylvania-based managed services and cloud provider regarding Microsoft licensing requirements and responses to audit findings and information requests in a SPLA audit matter. Principal issues addressed included identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, application of Active Directory security groups to control usage of SAL-licensed products, identification and exclusion of products not reportable under SPLA, and the client's requirement for an extended settlement-payment period. Assisted the client with evaluation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Represented Illinois-based, manufacturer in an Oracle software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with Oracle License Management Services (LMS) auditors, gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, reviewing and vetting draft audit findings, and negotiating an acceptable resolution with Oracle. Principal issues addressed included internal analysis of audit materials prior to submission to auditors, the auditors' failure to recognize bundled product deployments not requiring incremental licensing, and formulation of settlement proposals resulting in net value to client, rather than fees paid for licenses no longer required by the company.


Consulted with Texas-based company in responding to a Veritas software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with third-party auditors hired by Veritas, gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, and reviewing and vetting draft audit findings, ultimately resulting in no material compliance findings. Principal issues addressed included careful definition and management of audit scope, internal analysis of audit materials prior to submission to auditors, identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, and application of Veritas' product-support policies.


Represented global telecommunications and mass media company in an IBM software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with third-party auditors hired by IBM, gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, reviewing and validating draft audit findings, and negotiating an acceptable resolution with IBM. Principal issues addressed included careful definition and management of audit scope, identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, and formulation of settlement proposals resulting in net value to client, rather than fees paid for licenses no longer required by the company.


Defended Michigan-based managed services and cloud provider against over-reaching audit findings and settlement demands in a Microsoft SPLA audit matter. Principal issues addressed included challenges to the auditors' historical usage-extrapolation methodologies, and application of reduced-cost academic pricing to usage associated with qualified educational end users. Assisted the client with evaluation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Consulted with US financial services and insurance company in a Corel software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with Corel's in-house auditors, and gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, ultimately resulting in no material compliance findings. Principal issues addressed included careful definition and management of audit scope, and identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors.


Defended Northeast US not-for-profit organization against aggressive settlement demands following an IBM software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information to rebut audit findings and negotiating a resolution with IBM that avoided over a significant portion of the exposure associated with the original audit findings. Principal issues addressed included errors in certification following an unlimited licensing agreement and sub-capacity licensing requirements.


Defended Ontario-based, global provider online software solutions against over-reaching audit findings and settlement demands in a Microsoft volume licensing audit matter. Principal issues addressed included identification of passive software deployments not requiring incremental licenses, correction to erroneous licensed user counts, application of licenses acquired through Microsoft Partner benefits, and exclusion of decommissioned and unintentional product deployments. Assisted the client with evaluation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Represented US financial services and insurance company in a Micro Focus software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with Micro Focus' in-house auditors, and gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, ultimately resulting in no material compliance findings. Principal issues addressed included careful definition and management of audit scope, internal analysis of audit materials prior to submission to auditors, and identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors.


Defended Louisiana-based managed services and cloud provider against over-reaching audit findings and settlement demands in a Microsoft SPLA audit matter. Principal issues addressed included identification and application of appropriate license metrics to SQL Server installations, and exclusion of historical usage calculations for virtualization hosts that previously were physically dedicated to particular end users. Assisted the client with evaluation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Advised Maryland-based environmental engineering and regulatory consulting firm in responding to settlement demands following Oracle software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in formulating an acceptable settlement that avoided over 73% of the exposure associated with Oracle's original demands. Principal issues addressed included the formulation of settlement proposals resulting in net value to client, rather than fees paid for licenses no longer required by the company, as well as careful review of Oracle audit-settlement terms.


Represented a US financial services and insurance company in an IBM software-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with third-party auditors hired by IBM, gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, reviewing and vetting draft audit findings, and negotiating an acceptable resolution with IBM. Principal issues addressed included careful definition and management of audit scope, identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, and formulation of settlement proposals that aligned with prospective goals for a strategic vendor relationship.


Represented North Carolina-based managed services and cloud provider regarding Microsoft licensing requirements and responses to audit findings and information requests in a SPLA audit matter. Principal issues addressed included identification and evaluation of appropriate alternatives to audit materials requested by auditors, challenges to the auditors' historical usage-extrapolation methodologies (including consideration of historical over-reporting) and application of customer-supplied licenses to support Microsoft product usage in physically dedicated environments. Assisted the client with evaluation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Represented North Carolina-based, medical billing services provider in a Microsoft volume-licensing audit. Assisted the client in engaging with third-party auditors hired by Microsoft, gathering, reviewing and transmitting relevant information requested by the auditors, reviewing and vetting draft audit findings, and negotiating an acceptable resolution with Microsoft. Principal issues addressed included internal analysis of audit materials prior to submission to auditors, the auditors' failure to recognize non-functional product installations, Microsoft's pursuit of reimbursement for audit costs to which it was not entitled, and careful review of Microsoft's proposed settlement terms.


Represented southeastern hospital group in its Microsoft SAM engagement and discovered a number of license compliance gaps during the process. Prepared an effective license position and made recommendations to remediate the group’s software licensing gaps and streamline its network to maximize its licenses and reduce costs.  Interfaced with Microsoft during the engagement to avoid escalation and resolve the matter by placing a True-Up order to remediate gaps. 


Defended medical practice management firm in a BSA matter involving primarily Microsoft and Adobe software. BSA was represented by Venable LLP.  Because BSA’s initial demand was rife with inaccuracies, supplemental audit materials and corrections were submitted to BSA. The matter resolved confidentially for significantly less than BSA’s original demand.


Represented an aviation maintenance company in its BSA matter.  BSA was represented by Venable LLP.  We assisted our client with gathering hardware deployment data, reconciling deployments to entitlements, and gathering relevant proof of purchase date.  Our client was pleased when it received a letter from the BSA indicating that the information provided was sufficient to establish compliance and the BSA’s audit was concluded.


Defended large media corporation with an SIIA matter involving mostly Adobe products that had been pending for a more than a year. Donahue Fitzgerald represented the SIIA. The matter was settled out of court by a confidential settlement which was heavily negotiated on the topics of release of claims, representations and warranties, and future purchases. 


Defended infrastructure-as-service provider in connection with a Microsoft SPLA audit.  Issues addressed included the auditors' finding regarding historical usage of SQL Server in a virtualization environment that erroneously was assumed to include high-availability functionality. Assisted the client to evaluate its Microsoft license position, and negotiated more appropriate audit-settlement terms with Microsoft.


Represented international law firm in connection with an IBM audit.  Worked with the client to evaluate its client’s IBM license position and to improve its negotiating position with IBM. Issues included full-capacity audit findings for virtualization environments that previously had been licensed at sub-capacity levels, as well as apparent errors in IBM's audit report (as compared to separate, third-party report independently commissioned by client). Assisted client with resolving legal and technical issues involving IBM’s licensing rules.


Assisted International data services provider with challenging Oracle’s license-compliance findings.   Principal issue was the usage of Oracle products to provide transition services to recently divested business operation.


Assisted southeastern pharmaceutical wholesaler’s response to Oracle’s license-compliance findings and evaluated potential settlement options. 


Represented Italian managed services and cloud provider regarding Microsoft licensing requirements and responses to audit findings and information requests in a SPLA audit matter. Principal issues addressed included customer-licensed deployments in a multi-tenant hosting environment and the client's lack of administrative access to those resources, as well as compliance calculations that did not recognize credit for over-reporting. Assisted the client with calculation of its effective license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Prepared memorandum for International conglomerate objecting to Oracle audit report pertaining to the use of its products in virtualized environments and in third-party cloud environments.


Defended managed services provider in connection with Microsoft SPLA audit Evaluated and worked to correct & amend the auditor’s SPLA-audit findings. Principal issues addressed included customer-licensed deployments in physically dedicated hosting environments and inadvertent, historical over-reporting of Exchange SALs. Consulted with the client regarding Microsoft licensing requirements. Assisted the client to evaluate its Microsoft license position, and negotiated more appropriate audit-settlement terms with Microsoft.


Defended Healthcare solutions provider in connection with Microsoft SPLA audit. Evaluated and worked to correct & amend the auditor’s SPLA-audit findings. Issues addressed included deployments of Microsoft products on machines licensed for internal, development and testing usage (that therefore should not be counted for SPLA licensing), as well as deployments on customer-facing machines that nevertheless did not constitute a commercial-hosting use case. Consulted with the client regarding Microsoft licensing requirements. Assisted the client to evaluate its Microsoft license position, and negotiated more appropriate audit-settlement terms with Microsoft.


Represented supply chain management software company in connection with an IBM audit.  Assisted client with preparing a response to IBM’s license-compliance findings and to evaluate options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms. Principal issues addressed included legacy license metrics that IBM had deprecated, inaccurate extrapolation methodologies applied by the auditors to obtain counts of users with access to the software in question, and challenges to IBM's demand for support reinstatement. Assisted client with post-settlement inquiries regarding IBM license compliance and worked with client to propose amendments to go-forward IBM licensing agreement.


Advised US-based healthcare payment network on gathering audit data and responding to information requests from Microsoft’s auditors. Evaluated and objected to auditor’s SPLA-audit findings. Principal issue pertained to SQL Server deployments used in a passive-failover use case for which the auditors detected concurrent usage during data collection. Consulted with the client regarding other server-based Microsoft licensing requirements. Assisted the client in evaluating its Microsoft license position, and negotiated favorable audit-settlement terms with Microsoft.


Aided a Texas engineering firm that had a dispute with Autodesk’s business team involving its license gaps between deployments and licenses. Autodesk’s assessment was inaccurate and escalated the matter to Autodesk’s legal team. Scott & Scott verified the accuracy of Gessner’s audit results and negotiated on behalf of the client to correct Autodesk’s inaccuracies and apply the proper licenses.


Worked with UK insurance provider to evaluate its IBM license position and to improve its negotiating position with IBM. Assisted client in negotiating more appropriate audit-settlement terms. 


Worked with financial software hosting provider to gather audit data and to respond to information requests from Microsoft’s auditors. Evaluated and worked to correct & amend the auditor’s SPLA-audit findings. Assisted the client in evaluating its Microsoft license position and options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms.


Worked with worldwide consumer products company to evaluate its OpenText license position. Assisted in preparing a response to OpenText’s license-compliance findings and to evaluate options for more appropriate audit-settlement terms. 


Worked with provider of supply-chain management software based in New York to research and evaluate its Orbacus license position, applicable licensing requirements and  open-source licensing alternatives. Assisted client in positioning its discussions with the software publisher in furtherance of a settlement.


Assisted Midwestern IT services company with VMware licensing.


Defended security alarm monitoring company with over one million customers in an IBM audit initiated by Deloitte involving IBM web sphere and DB2 licensing.


Defended fortune 500 IT Services company in Microsoft audit resulting in a new $34,000,000 Microsoft Enterprise Agreement enrollment including a release of all compliance claims.


International workforce solutions firm selected Scott & Scott, LLP to assist with resolving software license audits, including IBM and Adobe.


Represented application hosting service provider in an audit conducted by BEA Systems resulting in business partnership and settlement agreement containing a release of all compliance claims.


Represented 75,000 employee business process outsourcing company in a dispute with Sun Microsystems and its successor Oracle resulting in a multi-year maintenance and support agreement covering the entire Sun hardware infrastructure.


Defended national nursing home software company in connection with a Borland audit conducted by Deloitte & Touche. 


Defended 140 location retail chain in compliance review conducted by Sybase involving over three million dollars in alleged compliance violations and threatened termination of over five hundred thousand dollars in perpetual licenses. 


Conducted software licensing audit of global entertainment company with fifty-thousand computers in connection with multi-year IT outsourcing contract.


Represented print management solutions firm against allegations of copyright infringement from the Business Software Alliance. Donahue Gallagher Woods represented the BSA. The BSA alleged unlicensed copies of numerous Adobe products. The case settled after two and half years for a fraction of the BSA's original settlement demand.


Represented a technology services firm to the financial services industry in a software audit instigated by the Software & Information Industry Association.  The SIIA was represented by Donahue Gallagher Woods.  Due to the audit findings the SIIA closed its file with the submission of a signed Officer's Certificate.


Southeastern engineering firm retained Scott & Scott, LLP to defend an Autodesk audit.  After six months the matter was settled with a software purchase and zero monetary penalties.


Defended Midwestern hosting services firm in a Microsoft SPLA audit involving heavily contested findings related to SharePoint usage.

Represented Creative Edge Master Shop in a declaratory judgment action against Autodesk in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.


Represented  Xerox in a declaratory judgment case filed in state court in Dallas, Texas.  The case involved the propriety of a publisher’s purported termination of a license agreement following the customer’s refusal to deploy proprietary software tools in response to an audit demand.


Represented TRG in a copyright infringement litigation filed by Microsoft in the United States District for the District of Columbia. The dispute arose over the accuracy of the findings of a third-party software auditor acting on behalf of Microsoft.


Initiated arbitration against document management publisher for breach of master software as a service agreement, misrepresentation of software functionality, and falsely and fraudulently advertising product offering.


Defended vertical cloud solution provider in customer claims related to data lost in the cloud.


Defended fifth generation garment manufacturer in federal copyright infringement case against Adobe pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Adobe the defendant of copyright infringement related to Adobe Creative Suite and related products.  On the eve of the Court’s hearing on motions for partial summary judgment related to the proper calculation of damages, the parties reached a confidential settlement.


Defended software developer in federal copyright infringement case pending in the United States District Court for the Western Disctrict of Texas.  Software company accused former contractor of copyright infringement related to user interface and product documentation that the contractor developed for the software company.  After the parties reached a confidential settlement, the contractor was dismissed from the lawsuit without any settlement payment.
Represented San Francisco based mortgage industry software-as-a-service provider in copyright infringement matter filed with the American Arbitration Association.  The case involved breach-of-license and copyright infringement claims arising from alleged reverse engineering of the licensed software.


Represented Texas based green energy provider in software dispute before the American Arbitration Association.  The matter settled after selection of the arbitrators during the discovery phase.


Represented fortune 500 IT services firm in declaratory judgment and copyright litigation in the Northern District of Texas related to the alleged termination of a software license following a merger transaction.  The case resulted in a prompt settlement and revised license agreement with a savings of over $2,200,000 off the pre-litigation settlement proposal from the software publisher.


Defended Las Vegas engineering firm in federal court copyright infringement claim resulting in prompt settlement following a motion to dismiss in the Northern District of California.


Sued software trade group and member software publishers in federal court alleging declaratory judgment and anti-trust claims resulting in quick out-of-court settlement.

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