Jury orders Texas school district to pay $9.2m in copyright claim
A US jury has ordered the Houston Independent School District, Houston’s public school system, to pay $9.2 million to an educational publishing company.
On Thursday, May 23, the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas jury concluded that the school district, through its employees, had wilfully infringed DynaStudy’s copyright to 36 products.
Texas-based DynaStudy sued the school district back in May 2016, alleging that schools and teachers had unlawfully reproduced, distributed, adapted and publicly displayed DynaStudy’s student course notes.
“Based upon the lack of control by defendant of its administrators, teachers, and other agents, the failure to reasonably respond to many of DynaStudy’s requests to resolve these issues amicably, and general disregard for DynaStudy’s IP rights, DynaStudy has been forced to bring this action,” said the claim.
In response, the school district argued that four of DynaStudy’s copyright-protected works were not infringed because they fell under the “fair use” doctrine (where limited copying is allowed if it does not unfairly undermine the protection afforded by copyright law).
But the Texas jury found that the Houston Independent School District had infringed the copyright in 36 products, including review guides for different grade levels of maths, science and geography, and none of these uses were fair use.
The jury also found the school district had violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with its creation and/or distribution of copies of 17 of DynaStudy’s student course notes.
Although the school district had also argued that three of the copyrights were invalid because DynaStudy had knowingly included inaccurate information in its applications for federal registration of those copyrights, the jury disagreed with this contention.
The school district had alleged that DynaStudy’s applications for the three copyrights listed “photographs and artwork” as the only material excluded from each claim, and that this was inaccurate.
A spokesperson for the school district said: "While we are disappointed by the verdict in the lawsuit filed by DynaStudy, we respect the court system and appreciate the service of the jury."
The Houston Independent School District is currently reviewing the verdict to determine its next steps.
Cole Schotz represented DynaStudy and Bracewell represented the school district.
Gary Sorden, member of Cole Schotz, said: "The verdict both affirms copyright law and enables DynaStudy to reimagine the best possible business model to accomplish its mission of 'evening the learning field' by getting effective products into students' hands."
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Today's top stories:
MillerCoors scores preliminary injunction against AB InBev
