NEW YORK, NY, March 23, 2011 — Baker & Hostetler LLP today announced that the firm secured dismissal of a complex intellectual property and contract dispute case against firm client World Programming Limited brought by SAS Institute, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling in favor of our client WPL,” said Peter Brown, counsel for World Programming Limited and a partner in Baker Hostetler’s New York office. “This judgment recognizes that the success of WPL in a similar case tried last June in the United Kingdom should be given deference. The North Carolina decision permits WPL to continue serving its clients with certainty and confidence.”
In SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Limited, plaintiff, a North Carolina-based software company, filed a lawsuit in January 2010 alleging copyright infringement and breach of a licensing agreement after the defendant, a competing U.K. software company, developed software that challenged plaintiff’s market dominance. This followed SAS’s filing three months earlier in October 2009 of the nearly identical claims before the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Louise W. Flanagan granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case for forum non conveniens, stating that “the U.K. affords an adequate cause of action and a sufficient remedy” and that “the foreign tribunal has already reached a conclusion that largely vindicates defendant.” She concluded that allowing the case to proceed in North Carolina would be disproportionally oppressive and vexatious.
In addition to Mr. Brown, the Baker Hostetler team representing World Programming Limited includes associates Dennis Cohen, Tarsha Luke, Naima Garvin, and Beth Howe.
###
About Baker Hostetler Founded in 1916, Baker Hostetler is among the nation’s 100 largest law firms with 700 attorneys coast-to-coast, delivering the highest quality legal counsel on the most complex and critical issues facing clients today. The firm has offices in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Costa Mesa, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando and Washington, D.C. Its five primary practice groups are Business, Employment, Intellectual Property, Litigation and Tax. For more information, please visit www.bakerlaw.com.
Contact: Laura Scharf, Communications Manager216.861.6616