Compaq Named in $10-Billion Copyright Infringement/Fraud Lawsuit
June 10, 1998 05:12 PM
HOUSTON, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The Houston law firm of Vaden, Eickenroht & Thompson announces that it is representing Ergonome Incorporated, a New York publishing company, in a $10.167-billion lawsuit against Compaq Computer Corporation CPQ . Ergonome seeks damages from Compaq for the willful infringement of Ergonome's copyrights, for Unjust Enrichment and Quantum Meruit, for Fraud, for Misappropriation and for Unfair Competition.
Ergonome is the publisher of a book entitled "Preventing Computer Injury: The HAND Book," based on a patented method of ergonomically safer keyboard technique invented by the concert pianist, Stephanie Brown.
In its complaint before the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, Ergonome alleges that Compaq copied copyright-protected portions of The HAND Book without Ergonome's permission for inclusion in the 1994 edition of Compaq's "Safety & Comfort Guide". The complaint estimates that Compaq has distributed at least 21,000,000 copies of the allegedly infringing booklet with computers that it has sold.
Ergonome's complaint alleges that in early 1994, Compaq requested that Ergonome provide it with a licensing proposal that would permit Compaq to supply a copy of The HAND Book with every Compaq computer sold, but that instead of finalizing the licensing arrangement, Compaq secretly created, and in August 1994 published, the allegedly infringing booklet.
Ergonome's complaint says that Compaq's infringement of its copyrights has damaged Ergonome in an amount not less than the price at which Ergonome offered to sell The HAND Book to Compaq, $7.95 per copy, multiplied by the estimated minimum of 21,000,000 allegedly infringing copies, or $166,950,000. Ergonome's complaint further claims that Compaq derived an additional $4-billion benefit from publication of the allegedly infringing booklet through avoidance of potential liability for that amount in keyboard-injury related lawsuits.
The largest keyboard-injury lawsuit to date, in which nine plaintiffs are suing Digital Equipment Corporation, has been in trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York since May, and is expected to come to a verdict imminently.
Ergonome's $6-billion claim for fraud is based upon its allegations that, after not responding for six months to the proposal which it had requested, Compaq reestablished contact with Ergonome and, over the next two years, engaged in the pretense of negotiating a license for use of Ergonome's "KeyMoves" software, leading Ergonome to refrain from demanding that Compaq cease its allegedly infringing activities. Ergonome's complaint states that Compaq perpetrated this fraud upon Ergonome calculatingly, willfully and purposefully.
Ergonome filed its initial complaint in Federal District Court in Manhattan on April 3, 1997. The New York case is stayed pending resolution of a motion by Ergonome to dismiss a declaratory judgment filing by Compaq in Texas on the basis of lack of jurisdiction over Ergonome and Ms. Brown.
Ergonome's complaint and exhibits of the alleged infringement can be viewed at the Vaden, Eickenroht & Thompson web site, patentlawyers.com. SOURCE Vaden, Eickenroht & Thompson, L.L.P.
|
