So, you're the one responsible for that piece of software! I never knew
all the particulars regarding the lawsuit......thanks for filling in the blanks.

I was one of the beta/pre-release testers for PDQ. I *almost* got my
picture taken for one of the marketing brochures at Boston Interex!

Too bad Cognos decided to use the heavy hand. Very short sighted. In
tandem, QUIZ and PDQ could have fed off of one another and increased
sales for both...........

Pat Shugart
Oaksoft Consulting, Inc.
(248)489-6565

>>> toback2 <[log in to unmask]> 01/18/98 06:14pm >>>
Jeff Woods writes:

>Once upon a time, a company named Tymlabs wrote and marketed a
>product called "PDQ for Quiz" which essentially functioned as a Quiz
>compiler, making Quiz reports run much faster.  Cognos sued and
>effectively won the lawsuit against Tymlabs because the product was
>essentially abandoned.
>I don't see why that wouldn't happen again if someone tried to compete
>with them by being a "drop-in replacement."

I wrote PDQ. It's a fairly safe bet that it would happen again.
Essentially every claim made in Cognos's lawsuit was false. They even
claimed that Quiz users don't own their own Quiz code; if it's written in
Quiz, they said, it belongs to Cognos. But it makes no difference: he who
has the most money for lawyers wins.

The merits of the case are, by and large, irrelevant. Cognos used their
lawyers to deprive users of a legitimate, legal alternative; it was very
clear they could keep the case going for as long as they wished and eat
up anything that Tymlabs could hope to gain by selling the product. So
Tymlabs settled the case and stopped marketing the product. With no
marketing, and with Cognos spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt, the
product died.

This is one of those cases where "loser pays" -- even an option for the
judge to order the loser to pay -- would have been a great help in
getting the right outcome.

-- Bruce


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