Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence (AI), announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Altair (World Programming) by affirming the dismissal of SAS Institute’s 2018 Texas lawsuit against World Programming (WPL) for alleged copyright infringement of SAS software. Altair (WPL) has successfully defended all copyright claims brought by SAS Institute since 2009.
“We are pleased with the decision of United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in favor of Altair,” said James R. Scapa, founder and chief executive officer, Altair. “After more than 12 years of litigation in multiple international venues, it’s clear the SAS language is not proprietary and companies other than the SAS Institute are free to provide compilers and development environments supporting the SAS language as is the case with other languages including Python, C++, Java, and others in the public domain.”
This legal milestone follows Altair’s acquisition of World Programming in 2021 and the establishment of Altair SLC, an alternative SAS language environment, which runs programs written in the SAS language syntax without needing third-party products. Altair SLC features a built-in SAS language compiler that runs SAS language code and SQL code and utilizes compilers to run Python and R code and exchange SAS language datasets, Pandas, and R data frames. It reduces users’ capital costs and operating expenses thanks to its superb ability to handle high levels of throughput.
Altair SLC exemplifies Altair’s dedication to open architecture technology, supporting companies on their journey towards embracing Python, cloud computing, and emerging technologies as they seek to modernize their SAS language environments, improve results, and control costs.
Altair SLC is available for companies in any industry across the globe who seek to embrace open-source languages and technology while simultaneously leveraging the decades of investment they’ve put into the SAS language. It is part of Altair RapidMiner – Altair’s data analytics and AI platform – and is available via Altair Units, which gives customers easy access to Altair’s entire portfolio of software solutions.
