Federal Court Trusts Technology To Prove Infringement

• Published date: 09 February 2021
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Technology, Copyright, New Technology
• Law Firm: Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
• Author: Ms Kalie McCrystal

Introduction

The Federal Court of Canada has recently signalled its willingness to accept technology as a stand-in for human analysis in a copyright infringement claim. Trimble Solutions v Quantum Dynamics, 2021 FC 63, demonstrates the value in using sophisticated technology to advance and defend claims that would typically require expensive and time-consuming manual efforts.

Facts

Trimble Solutions Corporation (Trimble) is the registered copyright owner of Tekla Structures, a software program used for 3D modelling and design in the construction industry. BuildingPoint Canada Inc. (BuildingPoint) is Trimble's authorized reseller in Canada.

Trimble embedded anti-piracy software in Tekla Structures to detect suspicious activity, such as the use or reproduction of the program by unauthorized users. When triggered, the software automatically collects certain data and generates an infringement report, which includes the nature and time of the incident and the user's IP address and device information.

Trimble received several infringement reports in February 2018 originating from 6 devices. Trimble claimed that the information from the infringement reports, combined with other data points including Google Maps screenshots and a LinkedIn profile page, identified Quantum Dynamics Inc. (Quantum Dynamics) and Mr. Tannus as the source of the infringements. Mr. Tannus is a director and officer of Quantum Dynamics.

After failing to resolve the dispute out of court, Trimble commenced an action against Quantum Dynamics and Mr. Tannus and eventually moved for default judgement.

Decision

In considering whether the anti-piracy software was sufficiently reliable to establish...