Guidewire Responds to Accenture Lawsuit

Background on lawsuit

On December 18, 2007 Accenture filed a lawsuit against Guidewire Software for alleged patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation. Guidewire first learned of the allegations via press reports.

Guidewire has never misappropriated Accenture's trade secrets and has not infringed Accenture's patent.

Guidewire believes both of these claims were filed in bad faith. Guidewire's February 6, 2008 filing makes clear that Accenture knew their claims were objectively meritless and asserted the claims anyway because of their inability to compete with Guidewire in the free market.

The trade secret claim does not specify what secrets were appropriated, how they were appropriated, how Guidewire used them, how Guidewire's product even resembles Accenture's product ... or any facts whatsoever, except Guidewire's "surprisingly quick development trajectory."

The patent infringement claim is based on a patent that Guidewire has asserted is unenforceable because of Accenture's conduct in obtaining the patent. Specifically, Guidewire has alleged that Accenture filed multiple (but nearly identical) applications on the same day, failed to cross reference those applications, and failed to disclose material prior art. Based on this conduct, Guidewire has asserted that Accenture intended to commit a fraud on the patent office and that the patent should be held unenforceable.

The real reason Accenture is attempting to inflict the expense and disruption of litigation upon Guidewire is that they have been left behind in the market by Guidewire's faster development process, superior products, lower-cost implementations, and unmatched track record of customer success. In launching a frivolous lawsuit, they are putting all insurance companies on notice that they may have to defend their intellectual property and stifling the innovation that the industry needs.

Download these documents for more detailed information:

• Accenture Patent
• Accenture Complaint
• Guidewire Answer & Counterclaims

Accenture v. Guidewire Software: Key business information

• Accenture and Guidewire Software have been competing directly for business for seven years. Since the two companies began competing for the same business, more than 40 insurance carriers have selected ClaimCenter to modernize their claims management operations.
• Guidewire attained a rating of "Strong Positive", the highest possible rating in Gartner's "MarketScope: North American Property and Casualty Insurance Claims Administrations Systems" for both 2008 and 2007, while Accenture was rated "Positive", representing a lower rating than Guidewire.
• In the 2008 "Vanguards in Insurance Practices" survey by Insurance Networking News and Celent, Guidewire was named #1 P&C Point Solutions provider and #2 Integrated Systems provider. Accenture did not place in any category in this survey.
• In the 2008 "Insurer’s Choice" survey by Tech Decisions and Financial Insights, Guidewire was named top P&C ‘Up and Coming Technology Firm’ and ranked as one of the top three vendors in multiple other categories. Accenture did not place in any category in this survey.
• Guidewire has a packaged software approach where the company continually improves products and makes new versions available to its customers. Guidewire also works very closely with its customers to accelerate the design of its products. Accenture's approach on the other hand is to separate its product into "components" that are then custom tailored for each individual customer. The Accenture approach makes it far more difficult, if not impossible, to provide a standard upgrade path for customers.