IBM United Kingdom Limited v LzLabs GmbH & Ors
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Technology and Construction Court) |
| Judge | Mrs Justice O’farrell |
| Judgment Date | 10 March 2025 |
| Neutral Citation | [2025] EWHC 532 (TCC) |
| Date | 10 March 2025 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Counsel | Nicholas Saunders Kc,Matthew Lavy Kc,Fred Hobson Kc,James Weale,Laura Wright,Henry Edwards,Alex Taylor,Jacob Haddad,Roger Stewart Kc,Mark Vanhegan Kc,Thomas Ogden,Jaani Riordan,George Mcdonald,Joshua Marshall |
Neutral Citation Number: [2025] EWHC 532 (TCC)
Case No: HT-2021-000363
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
TECHNOLOGY AND CONSTRUCTION COURT (KBD)
Royal Courts of Justice
Rolls Building
London, EC4A 1NL
Date: 10 March 2025
Before:
Mrs Justice O’Farrell DBE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between:
IBM UNITED KINGDOM LIMITED Claimant
- and -
(1) LZLABS GmbH
(a company incorporated in Switzerland)
(2) WINSOPIA LIMITED
(3) LZLABS LIMITED
(4) MARK JONATHAN CRESSWELL
(5) THILO ROCKMANN
(6) JOHN JAY MOORES Defendants
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Nicholas Saunders KC, Matthew Lavy KC, Fred Hobson KC, James Weale, Laura
Wright, Henry Edwards, Alex Taylor & Jacob Haddad (instructed by Quinn Emanuel
Urquhart & Sullivan UK LLP) for the Claimant
Roger Stewart KC, Mark Vanhegan KC, Thomas Ogden, Jaani Riordan, George
McDonald & Joshua Marshall (instructed by Clifford Chance LLP) for the Defendants
Reading dates: 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th & 26th April 2024
Hearing dates: 29th, 30th April 2024
1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd,
28th, 29th, 30th May 2024
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 18th, 19th June 2024
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th July 2024
Circulation of draft Judgment: 21st February 2025
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JUDGMENT
This judgment was handed down remotely at 10am on Monday 10th March 2025 by
circulation to the parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National
Archives.
Section Subject Paragraphs
I Introduction 1 – 16
II Background to the dispute 17 – 135
IBM Mainframes 17 – 35
Software Defined Mainframe (“the SDM”) 36 – 39
Hercules 40 – 42
Neon litigation 43 – 47
Formation of LzLabs and Winsopia 48 – 63
The ICA 64 – 75
Development of the SDM and the clean room procedures 76 – 110
Launch of the SDM 111 – 119
Project Eiger 120
Further development of the SDM 121 – 128
Audit request and termination 129 – 135
III The Proceedings 136 – 146
The issues 138
Factual witnesses 139 – 141
Expert evidence 142 – 145
IV Construction of the ICA 147 – 272
Approach to construction of the ICA 149
Scope of the licence 150 – 160
The ICA Programs 161 – 175
Customer applications 176 – 184
Licensed program specifications (“LPSs”) 185 – 193
Independent software vendors (“ISVs”) 194 – 195
Debugging tools 196 – 207
Restrictions on use of ICA Programs 208 – 213
Legislative framework 214 – 223
Berne Convention 224
TRIPS 225
WIPO 226
General principles from Convention and Treaties 227
Software Directive 228 – 233
CDPA 234 – 239
Applicable legal principles 240 – 270
Conclusions on ICA construction 271
V Alleged breaches of the ICA 273
Item 1 – IGZCUST 274 – 310
Item 2 – LMD 311 – 345
Item 3 – CICS Control Blocks Document 356 – 380
Item 4 – EXEC DLI 381 – 382
Item 5 – IBM Binder Software 383 – 401
Compiler listings – summary of dispute 402 – 406
Item 6 – IGZCIVL COBOL runtime module 407 – 423
Item 7 – CICS Translators 424 – 435
Item 8 – Floating point rounding rules 436 – 453
Item 9 – IBM PL/I Compiler 454 – 469
Item 10 – XML Parse statements 470 – 483
Item 11 – COBOL initialisation, branching and I/O
declaratives
484 – 504
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