The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJMG) has ordered two engineering companies in Coronel Fabriciano to pay Autodesk about R$177,300 for using AutoCAD 2014 and Revit 2021 without a license. The court reported the decision on 21 May 2026.

From dismissal to ten-fold damages

The unlicensed software was found on a notebook in the companies’ engineering department. The first-instance court had dismissed Autodesk’s claim. On appeal, the 18th Civil Chamber reversed that decision and set the indemnity at ten times the market value of the original licenses, explicitly to punish and deter.

The chamber held that unlicensed engineering software in an engineering department is presumed to be used for the business and to bring it an economic benefit. The companies did not have to be shown to profit from each copy.

When the companies then filed a motion to clarify the ruling, the court fined them a further 2% of the case value for litigating in bad faith.

Takeaways

  • Under Brazil’s copyright law (Lei 9.610/98), courts can award a multiple of the license price, not just the price itself.
  • Using design software inside the business is enough to presume commercial use.
  • Settling at the license price before litigation is a fraction of what a court can award.

Source: TJMG press release (Portuguese). Case 1.0000.24.438703-1.

Header photo: Rafael Lemieszek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and toned).