News

Caldwell Cassady & Curry Scores Complete Defense Win in Copyright, Patent Infringement Battle

Dallas law firm secures major victory for UK-based World Programming Limited

DALLAS – Attorneys from the Dallas business litigation and intellectual property law firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry have secured a complete defense victory for UK-based World Programming Limited in a lawsuit accusing the company of copyright and patent infringement.

SAS Institute Inc.’s last remaining claims were dismissed with prejudice by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on October 26, 2020.

Caldwell Cassady & Curry name principal Brad Caldwell is lead counsel for World Programming. World Programming is also represented by firm principals Austin Curry, Hamad Hamad, and John Summers, and firm associates Warren McCarty, Seth Reich, and Bailey Blaies.

SAS Institute and World Programming are competitors that develop and sell software products geared toward data analytics. SAS Institute sued World Programming and six other companies in 2018 based on allegations of copyright infringement for copyrights related to the SAS System software and manuals and patent infringement involving U.S. Patent Nos. 6,920,458; 7,170,519; 7,447,686; and 8,498,996.

Prior to the recent ruling, all the defendants except for World Programming had been dismissed from the case. Also prior to the recent ruling, SAS Institute had announced withdrawal of its patent infringement allegations with respect to all four asserted patents, leaving copyright infringement as its only live claims.

The decision to dismiss the plaintiff’s remaining allegations with prejudice followed a copyrightable hearing before Eastern District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. During the hearing, attorneys from both parties presented evidence and arguments relating to whether certain elements of SAS Institute’s registered copyrights were protectable.

In his 16-page memorandum opinion and order, Judge Gilstrap found that SAS Institute failed to prove that its claims were actually copyrightable. Judge Gilstrap also granted a motion filed by Caldwell Cassady & Curry to exclude testimony from SAS Institute’s expert witness, who the court found had improperly compared unprotected elements of SAS Institute’s copyrights to World Programming’s products.

Caldwell Cassady & Curry represents companies and individuals in high-stakes civil litigation, including patent infringement cases, trade secrets claims, fiduciary duty cases, class actions, and disputes involving company founders. The firm has tried and won some of the nation’s top verdicts against the largest companies in the world.

Recent