If you are a current or former partner organization of Business Objects or are considering becoming a partner, you might want to read the legal documents ( suit and counter suit ) filed in the Michigan court battle between CTTS and Business Objects. CTTS filed the original suit over unpaid commissions. This prompted BO to deny that any commissions were due and also to file a counter suit that alleges several trademark and license violations by CTTS, along with an attempt to revoke their software licenses over the violations.

The alleged license violations are the interesting part for me. They will sound familiar to anyone who has followed my reporting on BO’s new training control initiative. If you haven’t read about it, BO is attempting to force independent training providers and independent courseware providers to pay significant fees for things like using screenshots in course books or installing valid software licenses in a classroom. They base these actions on tortured definitions of their own EULA terms and by ignoring, conveniently, the ‘fair use’ provisions in copyright law.

I would love to hear from any current or former partners (on or off the record) who would like to discuss this topic. In the meantime make sure you get everything in writing.