shutterstock_1188449449_whitemocca
19 March 2021CopyrightRory O'Neill

ResMan wins $152m after COVID-19 mistrial

A Texas jury has awarded $152 million to US software company ResMan, after one of its clients was found liable for misappropriation of trade secrets to develop a rival product.

ResMan, which develops property management software, sued former customer Karya over claims it used ResMan’s proprietary software to develop its own rival product.

Karya worked with Texas-based software developer Expedien to produce Arya, a rival to ResMan’s software, and allowed Expedien to access ResMan’s systems more than 1,000 times without permission, ResMan claimed.

A jury at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas found in ResMan’s favour, concluding that Karya breached its subscription to ResMan by providing Expedien with access to the software. Both Expedien and Karya were found to have improperly acquired and used ResMan’s trade secrets.

The jury subsequently awarded ResMan $32.29 million in compensatory damages and $120 million in punitive damages. ResMan said it would seek injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees, following the verdict.

The case had originally been set to conclude last year, but was hit by a mistrial when 15 trial participants, including jurors and court staff, developed COVID-19.

“We are grateful for the jury’s verdict and appreciate the hard work of our trial team under very difficult circumstances,” said Paul Bridgewater, ResMan CEO, adding: “This case is very important to ResMan because our IP is one of our most valuable assets.”

Maria Wyckoff Boyce, partner at Hogan Lovells in Houston, led ResMan’s trial team. “This hard-fought case tried in the middle of the pandemic involved important issues surrounding the unauthorized use of computer software to develop a rival product,” Wyckoff Boyce said.

“The jury’s verdict for ResMan provides important relief for our client and its hard-working employees, who spent years and many millions of dollars developing this groundbreaking proprietary software used to manage apartment buildings throughout the US,” she added.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox

Today’s top stories

The CJEU’s ruling on web linking: what will it mean for copyright owners?

Cisco request for new trial denied after $1.9 billion loss

YouTube will now screen videos for copyright issues

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

article
1 May 2020   Spotify stole trade secrets to build its user-generated advertising platform by “dangling partnership prospects” in front of a Canadian audio company, according to a newly-filed lawsuit.
article
21 May 2020   Chinese company Lenovo has “cut-and-pasted” source code to build its online community platform, according to a suit filed by San Francisco-based Khoros.