Software Company M accused Company S of intellectual property theft,

Question

Software Company M accused Company S of intellectual property theft, citing as evidence similar user interface designs for the company's new operating system products, both of which launched this year, and the fact that Company M's chief designer defected to Company S nine months ago. Company S countered that the product was 90% completed by the time the former chief designer joined Company S, and that the designer was not allowed to work on that product in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

Select the additional information that, if true, would provide the strongest evidence For Company S's claim that it did not illegally obtain information about Company M's products, and select the additional information that, if true, would provide the strongest evidence Against that claim.

Apt0810 · Answer

For : If another company also has the same design as Company M's then that's probably not something related to the IP theft and the above argument strengthens S's claim

Against: If the key parts of S's code are identical to the key parts of M's, especially those designed by the chief designer than it's going against S's claim of not copying

Posted from my mobile device

ricyan11 · Answer

For: Last year, another company released software that
incorporates some of the same user interface designs at
issue in the dispute.

Against: Several key parts of the software code in Company S's
product are nearly identical to code that Company M's
former chief designer wrote for that company.

kornn · Answer

Dear  IanStewart   VeritasKarishma   DmitryFarber ,

Why is choice #1 not chosen as AGAINST Company S's claim?

We now know that M and S share UNIQUE similarities (IMO, choice #1 is opposite of choice #3 which states that M and S share already-existed similarities)

KarishmaB · Answer

M accused S of copying - saying that your interface is similar to ours.
M saying that T's interface is different from ours doesn't strengthen M's case and doesn't weaken S's case. How different M's interface is from some other interface is irrelevant. We need to focus on how similar S's interface is to M's interface. 
What strengthens M's case is that S's code is identical in parts to M's code (the part written by the ex-employee)

sallyedu · Answer

Dear  KarishmaB ,

Why is not #1 correct for For Argument - similarity is only in the code that is in industry for years , while in #3, only some parts are similar to the user interface that is at issue.

Bunuel · Answer

#1 is not enough because it refers only to generic  long-used  features and says nothing about the specific disputed designs or timing.

#3 is stronger because it shows the  disputed  designs existed earlier elsewhere last year.

Software Company M accused Company S of intellectual property theft,

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For	Against
		A comparison with a third operating system company's user interface design shows overlap with Company M only in features that have been in industry-wide use for years.
		Company S's former chief designer quit after a dispute over creative control.
		Last year, another company released software that incorporates some of the same user interface designs at issue in the dispute.
		Several key parts of the software code in Company S's product are nearly identical to code that Company M's former chief designer wrote for that company.
		It is quite common for software companies to accuse other companies of intellectual property theft.

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Software Company M accused Company S of intellectual property theft,

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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