BMC SOFTWARE, INC. HOUSTON - Sept. 23, 2015 - BMC, the global leader in software solutions for IT, has been engaged in a patent infringement lawsuit against one of its biggest competitors, Santa Clara, California-based ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE: NOW), for more than a year. BMC recently received a favorable key ruling as both companies are preparing for a March 2016 trial in East Texas.
According to the lawsuit, nearly all of ServiceNow's IT management offerings rely on BMC's patented technology. ServiceNow is accused of infringing seven of the patents in BMC's portfolio of more than 350 granted and pending patents - specifically, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,978,594; 6,816,898; 6,895,586; 7,062,683; 7,617,073; 8,646,093; and 8,674,992.
The court's recent ruling, called a Markman ruling, covers the meanings of key words and phrases that define the scope of the contested patents. Attorneys for both BMC and ServiceNow submitted a series of interpretations for the court to consider and determine the arguments that ultimately can be made at trial.
In the ruling, the court issued determinations for more than 50 terms and phrases from all seven BMC patents in the lawsuit. BMC General Counsel Patrick Tagtow says the company is pleased with the ruling and ready to head to trial.
"Most of the time, you win some and you lose some in a Markman ruling, but that's not the case here," Tagtow says. "This ruling clearly favors a majority of the interpretations offered by our legal team, and we feel that we prevailed on every important issue presented to the court. We're ready for trial in March and looking forward to presenting our case."
The lawsuit identifies the following ServiceNow IT management offerings as infringing BMC's patents:
- Incident Management and Problem Management;
- Performance Analytics;
- Configuration Management, including ServiceNow's Configuration Management Database (CMDB);
- Discovery;
- Orchestration; and
- Change and Release Management
The case is BMC Software, Inc. v. ServiceNow, Inc., No. 2:14-cv-903, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall.
About BMC
BMC is a global leader in software solutions that help IT transform traditional businesses into digital enterprises for the ultimate competitive advantage. Our Digital Enterprise Management set of IT solutions is designed to make digital business fast, seamless, and optimized. From mainframe to mobile to cloud and beyond, we pair high-speed digital innovation with robust IT industrialization-allowing our customers to provide intuitive user experiences with optimized performance, cost, compliance, and productivity. BMC solutions serve more than 15,000 customers worldwide including 82 percent of the Fortune 500.
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