Two years ago, the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Foundation filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, Ohio against Quint Studer and B.G. Porter, CEO of Studer Group. The issue was a patient callback system, called Discharge Call Manager, that the two companies developed and the Studer Group agreed to market to other hospitals. In May 2014, the judge made his ruling on the case –most of which was in favor of Studer, Porter and the Studer Group.
CCF claimed that it owned all the rights to the system and that Studer Group’s Patient Call Manager infringed on their copyright. It sought monetary damages and a permanent injunction freezing and imposing a constructive trust upon monies received by the defendants from the software systems.
Federal Judge Christopher Boyko issued his opinion and order in May. He held both parties to the “plain, unambiguous” terms of the contract and refused to “in effect create a new contract by finding an intent not expressed there.”
He granted summary judgment in favor of Studer on the counts regarding copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, conversion, federal unfair competition under Lanham Act, violation of Ohio Deceptive Trade Practices Act and unfair competition at Ohio Common Law.
He sent to AAA arbitration the counts regarding breach of contract, accounting and indemnification.
Read Opinion and Order: Studer Order.
