LADS Network Solutions, Inc. sued Agilis Systems, LLC and its subsidiaries for copyright infringement of LADS’s courier management software, GPStrac. LADS licensed GPStrac to Agilis from 2004 to 2009 and sought copyright protection in 2014. LADS’s application claimed the first publication date was May 1, 2000, but the Copyright Office found a 2004 copyright notice within the source code. LADS resubmitted the correct code, and the Copyright Office approved the copyright. LADS alleged Agilis continued using GPStrac after the license expired.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted summary judgment to Agilis, invalidating LADS’s copyright under 17 U.S.C. § 411(b). The court found that LADS had knowledge of inaccuracies in the application due to references to APIs that did not exist on the claimed publication date. The district court rejected LADS’s argument that § 411(b)(1) requires intent to defraud the Copyright Office.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reviewed the case de novo. The court found a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whether LADS had actual knowledge of the inaccuracies in the application. The court noted that the API references alone did not necessarily provide actual knowledge of the code’s creation date. Agilis failed to show that LADS knew the API’s creation date from any source. The court held that this factual dispute precluded summary judgment and reversed the district court’s decision, remanding the case for further proceedings. View “LADS Network Solutions, Inc. v. Agilis Systems, LLC” on Justia Law