Posts Tagged: "Source Code"

Eighth Circuit Affirms Holding That Disclosure of Source Code Was Authorized Under the Parties’ Agreement

On August 14, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a district court decision in MPAY Inc. v. Erie Custom Computer Applications, Inc, et. al. In particular, the Circuit Court affirmed the district court’s conclusion that MPAY had not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its copyright infringement or trade secret misappropriation claims. The Circuit court also affirmed the district court’s decision to deny preliminary injunctive relief for MPAY’s source-code claim, but vacated in part the district court’s Order and Judgment denying that relief and remanded for the district court to consider whether a preliminary injunction against Erie Custom Computer Applications and Payroll World is appropriate.

Rebecca Tapscott

August 20, 2020

Your Developers Could Be Publicly Disclosing Source Code By Using Third-Party Code Repositories

Recently, I met with a potential client to discuss key points that developers and management should keep in mind in taking the first steps to begin developing a patent portfolio. One aspect of the presentation was public disclosures that began the one-year grace period for filing for patent protection. As I was preparing examples, a practical concern emerged; specifically, whether storing source code in a third-party code repository amounted to a public disclosure or a printed publication. My research revealed that there are certain instances where uploading source code to a third-party repository amounted to a public disclosure or a printed publication, but there were precautions that developers and companies could take to prevent the inadvertent public disclosure of their code.

Christian LaForgia

April 30, 2019

Source Code Review: Mitigating Risks and Reducing Costs

Source Code Review is the most powerful tool in a litigator’s war chest in patent and trade secrets cases. An important consequence of the judicial climate shifting farther away from business methods and closer to technically complex IP is that receiving parties now face a higher burden of proof and subsequently higher legal costs. Not only are receiving parties now required to be more diligent prior to a case filing but they also end up spending extra thousands of dollars reviewing millions of lines of code to successfully formulating their infringement arguments. A significant cost and exposure risk can be avoided simply by a diligent assessment on both sides as to what source code needs to be produced to the receiving party.

Rahul Vijh

April 19, 2016