Judge denies preliminary injunction in Trade Service copyright case

Two months after Trade Service brought litigation against competitor Material Express for copyright infringement, San Diego Federal Chief Judge Marilyn Huff denied the former’s request for a preliminary injunction that would bar Material Express from using its pricing service until a decision could be made as to whether it violated a Trade Service copyright. Trade Service had accused Material Express of misappropriating the layout and arrangement of the company’s electrical Price File Maintenance Service (PFMS) and copying various data elements from the PFMS product.

While Judge Huff ruled, in part, that Material Express could not use an exact copy of the PFMS format, she also ordered that Trade Service post a $500,000 bond to be considered as “damages” to Material Express should Trade Service fail in its copyright infringement case.