HT-2021-000363 - [2025] EWHC 532 (TCC)

The allegation by IBM is that Winsopia reverse engineered the macro expansion tables and supplied the contents of the same to LzLabs. The defendants’ case is that macros and copybooks are provided in source code and, when included in a customer application, become part of the customers’s source code and compiled program. As such, they do not form part of any ICA Program. The information sent by Winsopia to LzLabs was not source code but rather information derived from observing, studying and testing the macros or copybooks. Further, the macros and copybooks in question define data formats and values needed by customer applications to access and store their data, accept input from the keyboard, and send commands to other devices. Winsopia’s activities were within its interoperability rights.

The pleaded examples relied on by IBM are considered below. In each case, there is no dispute as to the material facts.