Connecticut Judiciary Sued Over Case-Management System

HARTFORD, Conn. (CN) — A software developer that built a case-management information system for the Connecticut Judicial Branch claims in court that the successor to its decade-old program uses its trade secrets.

Represented in Hartford Superior Court by the firm David and Cohen of Wellesley, Mass., Pavonix Inc. says that Connecticut contracted with it in back in 2000.

This partnership ended, according to the Aug. 27 complaint, in March 2007 when the state stopped paying.

Apart from that breach of contract, Pavonix says it would later learn that the Connecticut Judicial Branch “had wrongfully taken Pavonix’s source code ... and wrongfully utilized that source code to develop Judicial Electronic Bridge, a program designed to replace the licensed program.”

Pavonix, which was formerly called Softscape Inc., quotes its 2000 contract as saying that it retained "all rights to the licensed program and documentation developed by [Pavonix], an any inventions, creations, and improvement whether or not patentable or copyrighted, conceived or made in connection with the use of the licensed software." (Brackets in original.)

A representative for the Connecticut Judicial Branch declined to comment on the suit, citing policy toward pending litigation.

The complaint goes onto state that the Judicial Branch through the JEB system "significantly expanded the number of users in the CMIS system beyond Connecticut Judicial's Court Support Services Division in violation of the enterprise-wide license granted by Pavonix in the agreement."

As a result of the misappropriation of its trade secrets, Pavonix claims to have suffered “economic damages and irreparable harm in the market place.”

Pavonix is seeking punitive damages and an injunction against the Connecticut Judicial Branch to cease the copying of its licensed program and proprietary information and cease use of the CMIS system.

The complaint is signed by Davids & Cohen attorney Young Han.

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