A win against software piracy in Washington State

April 3, 2013 | Stainless Steel Baskets, News, Publications & Events

Washington State Attorney General sealA new law in Washington State to police software piracy and unfair competition was used to prompt Embraer, a major Brazilian aerospace company, to reach a settlement with Microsoft Corp. over the use of unlicensed software. While details of the settlement were not made public, manufacturing supporters and other opponents of intellectual property theft such as the National Alliance for Jobs and Innovation (NAJI) cheered the use of the new law. Marlin Steel is a founding member of NAJI.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said his office exchanged several letters with the Brazilian company before taking more formal steps. Microsoft is the second largest company in Washington state, reporting $74 billion in revenue last year. Embraer reported $6 billion in revenue last year.

"Our office is committed to protecting Washington businesses and consumers and ensuring that powerful interests that don’t play by the rules are held accountable," the attorney general said in a statement today. "Any company wishing to do business in our state must compete fairly."

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