6.19.09
Security Weaver™ Litigation Update
San Diego, CA
. . FOR AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY CLICK HERE Security Weaver™ has posted this fact sheet regarding our current litigation with SAP® AG and SAP America, Inc. in response to numerous inquiries regarding the status of this case. Our intention in posting this fact sheet is to provide a summary of the facts surrounding the case in a way that is informative and helpful to our customers and business partners and to help reduce any confusion or mis-information that may exist as to the nature of this case. Plaintiffs SAP America, Inc. and SAP AG (collectively “SAP”) develop and sell business software products. Defendant Security Weaver LLC (“Security Weaver”) develops and sells Governance, Risk, and Compliance (“GRC”) applications that provide “add-on” functionality to SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) software. Through marketing and licensing initiatives, SAP encourages third parties to develop add-on software products for SAP ERP, and SAP develops add-on software, itself. Pursuant to a series of contracts, SAP licensed Security Weaver to develop and sell “add on” applications for use with SAP’s software. SAP also licensed Security Weaver to use certain SAP trademarks so long as Security Weaver’s applications passed the requirements of SAP’s certification program. SAP’s certification program is designed to assure SAP users that third-party applications meet SAP’s specifications, contain a correct implementation of SAP-endorsed technologies, and maintain stability within the SAP environment. SAP certified Security Weaver’s product called “Security Weaver 2.0.” In November of 2008, SAP sued Security Weaver, without any prior contact to Security Weaver, to raise its concerns that Security Weaver made unauthorized use of SAP’s trademarks and falsely advertised that Security Weaver’s new products were certified, when, in fact, they were not. Allegedly, Security Weaver used SAP’s certification trademarks in a manner unauthorized by SAP's branding guide. In addition, SAP contends that Security Weaver breached its contracts with SAP, by failing to offer SAP a right of first refusal to purchase Security Weaver's product and failing to return certain temporary development software supplied by SAP. SAP contends that these acts also violate Pennsylvania's unfair trade practices act. Security Weaver contends that SAP has unlawfully discouraged Security Weaver’s customers and prospects from doing business with Security Weaver, by falsely stating that Security Weaver copied SAP’s software code, and by falsely stating that SAP sued Security Weaver over stolen SAP Code. In recognition of SAP’s concerns and at SAP’s request, Security Weaver voluntarily submitted source code to an independent 3rd party to conduct an audit of Security Weaver’s software. We are happy to report that the results of that audit have demonstrated that there has not been any infringement of SAP source code by Security Weaver. Security Weaver also contends that SAP has engaged in unfair competition and anti-competitive acts, in an attempt to monopolize the market for ERP/SOD software for companies that run SAP ERP. Security Weaver alleges that SAP's predatory acts include: 1) SAP falsely stating to Security Weaver’s customers and prospects that Security Weaver stole SAP Code, and that SAP sued Security Weaver as a result; 2) wrongfully dissuading a third party host of SAP marketing conferences from permitting Security Weaver to attend and market its products; 3) wrongfully excluding Security Weaver and other competitors from SAP’s marketing conferences, despite advertising a policy and practice of encouraging competition to permit further development of the “SAP ecosystem”; 4) SAP withholding certification from new entrants into the market; and 5) SAP forcing customers to license SAP’s own GRC product. Based on these acts, Security Weaver counterclaims for tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, trade libel, unfair competition, and attempted monopolization. At this posting Security Weaver and SAP are in settlement discussions. We are optimistic that these discussions will lead to a mutually agreeable way forward and hopefully a stronger partnership between Security Weaver and SAP in the future. The Joint Status Report filed June 8, 2009 can be viewed HERE We will continue to post updates to the status of this case as significant developments emerge. In the mean-time, if you have specific questions or concerns please feel free to email your concerns to info_lit@securityweaver.com About Security Weaver: Security Weaver is a leading provider of governance, risk and compliance management (GRCM) software for SAP. Our flagship software suite, Security Weaver is engineered to give customers a unified view of their enterprise-wide application environment so they can reduce the risk of fraud, accelerate the efficiency of operations and ease the burden of ongoing compliance requirements. Security Weaver's suite of products includes tools for the management of enterprise wide segregation of duties (SoD) conflicts, full automation of the user provisioning process, control of privileged user access, configurable process controls and advanced audit analytics integrated with robust reporting and workflow capabilities. Organizations throughout the world are using Security Weaver to support a robust GRCM framework in SAP while providing Finance, IT and Audit with the tools and visibility they need to reduce the risk of fraud and ensure compliance. For more information, visit www.securityweaver.com.