A US Federal court in Bridgeport, Connecticut has handed down a ruling that is likely to be cited as a precedent in future cases of alleged infringement of a software developer’s copyright in the look and feel of its programs. The court decided that CAMS Inc, Plantsville, Connecticut, Chempro Data Science Corp of Westfield, Massachusetts, […]
A US Federal court in Bridgeport, Connecticut has handed down a ruling that is likely to be cited as a precedent in future cases of alleged infringement of a software developer’s copyright in the look and feel of its programs. The court decided that CAMS Inc, Plantsville, Connecticut, Chempro Data Science Corp of Westfield, Massachusetts, and ABR Business Systems Inc of New York infringed the copyright held by Manufacturers Technology Inc of West Springfield, Massachusetts in its Costimator cost estimating program by imitating the look of the screens and the sequence in which they came up. Significantly, however, Judge Daly found for the defendents in the matter of using particular keystrokes, which is cheering Paperback Software Inc in its look and-feel battle with Lotus Development Corp. The decision was handed down in late January, but Manufacturers delayed announcing it until the 30-day period for the defendents to appeal had expired.
