CA Sues AppDynamics For Patent Infringement

CA filed the lawsuit against San Francisco-based AppDynamics Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York. Islandia, N.Y.-based CA is seeking undisclosed damages "for lost profits and legal costs" and an injunction against AppDynamics "prohibiting the infringement of CA Technologies' APM patents," CA said in a statement.

"AppDynamics has received no official paperwork or details regarding the alleged lawsuit so we're unable to comment on it," said a statement issued Thursday morning by an AppDynamics spokesperson. "We do strongly believe AppDynamics does not infringe upon any protected IP."

[Related: CA Taps Former Taleo Executive To Be Its New CEO ]

"The reality is, we win against our competitors in nine out of 10 selling situations, which is due to the highly unique nature of our technology that has been embraced by thousands of organizations worldwide. We encourage our competitors to compete in the marketplace on the basis of their technology and not engage in frivolous lawsuits," AppDynamics said in the statement.

CA said it acquired a number of APM patents, including the three cited in the lawsuit, when it bought Wily Technology in 2006 for $375 million. Jyoti Bansal, a former lead software architect at Wily and former CA employee, founded AppDynamics in 2008.

"CA Technologies takes seriously what it believes to be willful and deliberate patent infringement," said Richard Donoghue, chief counsel for litigation at CA, in a statement. "We will take all steps necessary to ensure that our intellectual property is protected."

In November CA filed a similar lawsuit against software developer New Relic claiming infringement of the same three APM patents. New Relic was founded by Lew Cirne, who was Wily Technology's founder and CEO. He joined CA after the Wily acquisition, CA said, but left shortly afterward.

PUBLISHED APRIL 11, 2013