Company Claims Software Copyright Infringement Based on Copying of Business Logic

BulletProof Technologies ("BulletProof"), a software development company based in California, recently sought a California judicial declaration that it had not infringed any U.S. copyrights owned by Navitaire of Minnesota ("Navitair"), a subsidiary of Accenture. BulletProof also asked for a declaration that it had the right to sell, distribute and market the software product in question. Prior to this, Navitaire had commenced litigation in the United Kingdom alleging infringement by BulletProof Technologies of Navitaire's UK copyright in a software system package. In 1996, Navitaire had provided a travel reservation software system to a UK-based airline, EasyJet Airline ("EasyJet"). Unsatisfied with the resulting product, EasyJet had commissioned BulletProof to produce a replacement system. Navitaire claimed that the BulletProof system accepted some of the same commands as its product, included similar database fields and employed the same business logic and therefore, alleged that the copyright in the Navitaire software had been infringed. BulletProof is arguing that the definition of "business logic" remains undefined and its status as copyrightable subject matter in the U.S. uncertain. For another report of the case, please see: http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/06/HNaccenturesued_1.html Summary by: Peter Wang Concerned about your company's intellectual property? Contact Gervas Wall (gwall@dww.com) or Peter Wang (pwang@dww.com) of DWW.