The complaint

4DD Holdings, LLC v. Leidos SMS, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-03725 (E.D. Va.), is a 68-page complaint filed November 10, 2026, ECF No. 1, with a jury demand. 4DD Holdings, LLC, which does business as 4DD Software, is a Delaware limited liability company that the complaint says develops software products for licensing to government and commercial customers. The defendants are Leidos SMS, Inc., formerly known as Systems Made Simple, Inc. (SMS), a New York corporation based in Reston, Virginia; Lockheed Martin Corporation, a Maryland corporation based in Bethesda, Maryland; and Leidos, Inc. and Leidos Holdings, Inc., Delaware corporations based in Reston, Virginia. A November 10, 2026 docket entry assigns the case to Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr. and Magistrate Judge Ivan D. Davis.

The mark

The complaint relies on U.S. Reg. No. 4,532,091 for the word mark TETRA. USPTO status records show it as live and registered to 4DD Holdings, LLC on the Principal Register on May 20, 2014, for computer software for the collection, editing, organizing, modifying, book marking, transmission, storage and manipulation of data and information for building data workflow processes, in Class 9, and show that the registration has been renewed. The complaint says SMS had actual notice of the mark because Addendum No. 2 to the parties' Interim License Agreement renders it with the registration symbol.

The Lanham Act count

The complaint alleges, on information and belief, that in the second half of 2014, while SMS was looking for a buyer, SMS ran 4DD's TETRA software in demonstrations to prospective business partners and prospective acquirers and told them the technology was SMS's own. It alleges, on information and belief, that SMS used 4DD's marketing and technical documents in those demonstrations after removing the 4DD logo and branding and replacing them with SMS graphics. It says 4DD never authorized SMS to show TETRA to outside companies in those demonstrations, that 4DD learned of them in 2015, and that a July 29, 2016 tolling agreement tolls the claim. Count II, against SMS only, pleads reverse passing off under section 43(a)(1)(A) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(A), and alleges that SMS acted willfully.

The counts

  • Count I: misappropriation of trade secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1836, against SMS, Lockheed, and Leidos.
  • Count II: reverse passing off under section 43(a)(1)(A) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(A), against SMS only.
  • Count III: copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501, against SMS, Lockheed, and Leidos.
  • Count IV: tortious interference with prospective business relations under Virginia law, against SMS and Lockheed only.
  • Count V: misappropriation of trade secrets under the Virginia Uniform Trade Secrets Act, against SMS, Lockheed, and Leidos.
  • Count VI: unjust enrichment under Virginia law, against SMS, Lockheed, and Leidos.
  • Count VII: fraudulent inducement under Virginia law, against SMS only.

Relief requested

4DD asks for actual damages; disgorgement of profits; compensation for the diminution in value of its business; a permanent injunction against developing, marketing, selling, or licensing any product that incorporates or derives from 4DD's technology, including eHIIP, a platform the complaint says SMS built using 4DD's trade secrets; enhanced damages pleaded in the alternative, including treble damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a) on the reverse passing off count; attorneys' fees and costs; and a declaration confirming 4DD's ownership of the technology and invalidating any patent applications or other intellectual property rights the defendants claim that derive from it.