Company illegally copied IBM software and breached contracts with IBM

IBM today filed suit against Micro Focus, accusing the software company of illegally copying and reverse engineering IBM software in violation of copyright law.

In the legal action filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, IBM asserts that these actions constitute “illegal opportunism, willful infringement, and blatant breach of Micro Focus’s contractual obligation” and undermine IBM’s significant investments in software innovation.

IBM has long run successful programs aimed at fostering an ecosystem of developers that create applications for IBM’s mainframe systems, to the benefit of our mutual customers. IBM and its customers rely on these software developers as trusted partners. Micro Focus has broken that trust, a discovery that this suit brings to light.

Micro Focus has brazenly stolen IBM software and we are going to protect IBM’s product development investment from Micro Focus’ illegal tactics. We’ve made significant investments over many decades in research and development of our industry-leading IBM mainframe system technology, to the great benefit of our trusted partners, our customers and the global economy. We will aggressively defend IBM’s intellectual property against those who attempt to steal it.

Our complaint seeks monetary relief as well as an injunction against Micro Focus that would prohibit the company from continuing to harm IBM by illegally copying and distributing our software.