Since this is the opinions forum, and since it remains empty, I guess I'll start things off with my opinion about today's settlement. As usual, it seems like the only winners are the lawyers. I thought ODA would press for more concessions from Autodesk, but otherwise this is pretty much what I expected. I don't think the injunction does all that much damage to ODA, and giving in on the use of a TrustedDWG watermark is reasonable I think.

Publicity from the lawsuit has created better informed consumers, and in my opinion has somewhat reduced the need for ODA to mimic TrustedDWG. Still, I would have liked to see ODA capitalize on the Autodesk initiative to water down the UI language and at least get them to agree to not ramp it back up in the future.

One side effect of the settlement is that it leaves some legal questions unanswered. Does ODA's usage of the TrustedDWG watermark violate trademark law? Does Autodesk's apparent attempt to alarm AutoCAD users about non-Autodesk files violate the Sherman Act?

I'd like to hear your thoughts. What has Autodesk learned from this? What has ODA learned from this? What have *we* learned from this?