Cadence Design Systems, Inc. v. Avant! Corp.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (“Cadence”) brought suit against Avant! Corporation (“Avant!”) (pronounced Ah VAN tee) for copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Cadence appealed the district court’s partial denial of its motion for preliminary injunction. Cadence asserts that the district court erred (1) by failing to enjoin Avant! from using copyrighted computer code after the district court found that Cadence was likely to succeed on the merits of its copyright claim and (2) by failing to enjoin Avant! from selling modified software products created to replace the infringing software products. For the following reasons, we reverse the district court’s decision and remand.

Background

Cadence and Avant! compete in the field of “place and route” software. 1 On December 6, 1995, Cadence sued Avant! for theft of its copyrighted and trade secret computer source code 2 and notified Avant! and the district court that it intended to file a motion for preliminary injunction. 3 Cadence asserts *826 that Avant! incorporated wholesale portions of Cadence’s copyrighted source code in Avantl’s ArcCell and ArcCell XO software products (“ArcCell products” or “ArcCell…