By Maria Ward-Brennan
Tech giant IBM is kicking off its legal battle against Swiss software company Lzlabs in the English High Court today over allegations of reverse-engineering.
IBM believes that since 2013 when it licensed its mainframe software to Lzlabs subsidiary Winsopia, the defendant reverse-engineered the IBM system to create its own product.
IBM UK, a subsidiary of its US parent company IBM Corp, alleges that Lzlabs software enables customers to take applications developed for IBM mainframe computers and run them without the need for source code change.
Zurich-headquartered Lzlabs denies the terms were breached.
The case was originally filed to the High Court in September 2021, going through several rounds of amendments to claim and defence forms.
In a case that will have the focus of the Tech industry, the trial kicks off on Monday at the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) of the High Court. It’ll be heard before Mrs Justice O’Farrell over the court of 28 working days.
There is a parallel litigation happening over Stateside in Texas, as IBM filed legal action against LzLabs and Texas Wormhole for what it stated as misuse of its intellectual property.
According to a claim form filed to the Western District of Texas, IMB Lzlabs’s owners John Moores and Thilo Rockmann were “engaging in a scheme to free-ride on IBM’s mainframe business”.
IBM’s legal team consists of Quinn Emanuel’s partners Kate Vernon and Greg Pantlin with leading silks from Brick Court Chambers Nicholas Saunders KC and Craig Morrisons KC.
While Lzlabs has opted for Clifford Chance partners Kate Scott and Vanessa Marsland with leading silk from 4 New Square Roger Stewart KC and 11 South Square’s Mark Vanhegan KC.
