SAN FRANCISCO – A San Leandro contract furniture installation company alleges a Union City business is using a copied version of its exclusive software.
Service West Inc. filed a complaint on Oct. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Advanced Office Services & Installation Inc. alleging copyright infringement and unfair competition.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that in 2000, it hired software programmer Paul Ferguson to work on Order Works, a software program that the plaintiff has had exclusive rights to use and uses for the purpose of business management and logistical planning. However, the defendant allegedly approached Ferguson in November 2014 to develop an unauthorized copy of plaintiff’s software, furthermore, the infringing version was also used by another competitor, All Modular Systems. The plaintiff alleges that both Ferguson and All Modular Systems immediately ceased further use of the copied software on plaintiff's demand, but the defendant continued to use the software, which caused plaintiff to suffer economic injury and invasion of its legally protected interest.
The plaintiff holds Advanced Office Services & Installation Inc. responsible because the defendant allegedly continued its willful and intentional reproduction/use of a copyrighted property without consent or license, and received improper gains and advantages as a result of its infringement.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment in its favor, determination and declaration of infringement, permanent injunction, damages, costs, attorneys' fees, interest and and further relief as the court may deem just. IT is represented by Chris Kao, Whitney Miner and Andrew Chen of Kao & Swope LLP in San Francisco.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-06173