Accenture/Guidewire Battle Rekindles

The latest salvos in the Accenture/Guidewire legal battle have been fired, with Accenture filing a new suit on Nov. 10 in the Delaware District Court, adding to the exiting case before Judge Sue L. Robinson. Guidewire fired back the next day with a press statement alleging, in essence, that Accenture was engaging in what observers of the software industry and others have sometimes termed "competition by litigation." Accenture has now reacted to Guidewire's statement.Insurance & Technology received the following response from Accenture this morning:

"Defendants typically attack a patent's validity as a defense, however, we are confident that our patents will be upheld both at trial and by the patent office. "The Accenture Claim Components Solution currently helps process 40 million property and casualty insurance claims globally, including approximately one-third of all insurance claims in the United States. It is recognized to be one of the most innovative technology solutions in the insurance industry, with eight US and 10 other worldwide patents granted since 1999. It was the first Web-based claims solution on the market, the first deployed to 20,000 claims handlers in a single implementation, and was the highest analyst-rated claims solution in 2009. "When anyone violates our intellectual property, we will pursue all appropriate legal remedies to protect it."

We'll be reporting in greater depth over the coming days about the meaning of this latest development and the potential impact of the matter once verdicts in the specific actions are reached.The latest salvos in the Accenture/Guidewire legal battle have been fired, with Accenture filing a new suit on Nov. 10 in the Delaware District Court adding to the exiting case before Judge Sue L. Robinson. Guidewire fired back the next day with a press statement alleging, in essence, that Accenture was engaging in what observers of the software industry and others have sometimes termed "competition by litigation." Accenture has now reacted to Guidewire's statement.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio