Bengaluru court restrains Pearson India from infringing intellectual property of ed-tech start-up New Rubric

A Bengaluru City Civil Court recently restrained educational company Pearson India Education Services from infringing the intellectual property of Bengaluru-based education startup New Rubric Solutions [New Rubric Solutions LLP v. Pearson India Education Services Pvt Ltd]..Additional City Civil Judge Nagarajappa AK held that the plaintiff New Rubric Solutions had proved that it was the copyright owner of the educational software tool “Kaleido”, and that the defendant Pearson India had infringed its copyright by using and publishing its study results. .In 2012, plaintiff had developed the educational software tool 'Kaleido', which assesses and analyses the academic performance of school students. Pearson India had invited New Rubric to conduct a pilot study to showcase the product features at a school in Bengaluru managed by it.The findings of the pilot study and an analysis of the students' academic performance were shared with Pearson on a confidential basis, after which the parties began commercial discussions for license of the product to Pearson. However, they could not arrive at mutually acceptable terms, and the discussions were discontinued. Subsequently, in 2015, Pearson launched its own product called MyPedia, which performed functions that were similar to those of Kaleido..The plaintiff approached the City Civil Court, alleging that defendant had copied its material and misrepresented the same as its own. It was also alleged that the assessment feature was added to MyPedia later, when it became apparent that the parties could not mutually agree on the terms for a commercial license. .The plaintiff also filed a criminal complaint against the defendant for theft and dishonest misappropriation of the test results of Kaleido, cheating, criminal breach of trust and conspiracy.The Court noted that Section 2(o) (literary work) of the Copyright Act includes computer programmes, tables and compilations, and the work created by the plaintiff came under the Copyright Act. Further, Kaleido was launched by the plaintiff in the year 2012, while the defendant launched its product in 2015. .After considering the evidence of the plaintiff, the Court held that it had shown that it was the copyright owner under Section 14 (meaning of copyright) of the Act, and fulfilled the requirements to prove itself as the first owner of the copyright. .The Court held that as the defendant had reproduced the material of the plaintiff without permission or a license, it amounted to infringement of the copyright of the plaintiff. Pearson India was thus directed to remove the infringing material from YouTube and from any other marketing material where the results were used. The company was also permanently injuncted from using or referring to the test results of Kaleido in any press release, announcement, promotional campaign, and so on. .New Rubric was represented by Senior Advocate Promod Nair, with Advocates Ramya Ramchandran and Pradyumna Narasimha. Pearson was represented by Dua Associates..[Read Judgment]