HP Pays Up $8.2M at Last

HP has finally paid US$8.2 million after having been found to have misappropriated software designed to block theft and counterfeiting.

A spokesperson at the “private eye toner investigating company,” Professional Investigating and Consulting Agency Inc. (PICA), says the company has finally received payment from Hewlett Packard for its trade-secrets case originally filed in June 2012, as reported by tonernews.com.

Previously, PICA filed suit in the state of Delaware, alleging that HP misappropriated a proprietary program designed by PICA to help HP in its efforts to block theft and counterfeiting of goods.

In 2014, a jury found that HP did in fact “misappropriate PICA’s program, proprietary investigative ways, means and methods.” At the time, PICA was awarded more than US$6.5 million in damages.

HP appealed the court decision early last year, however the court decided that the original decision stood. After additional interest and legal fees were calculated, the award to PICA grew to US$8.2 million, Vincent Volpi (pictured), CEO of PICA advised.

“It’s been a long and onerous nightmare,” Volpi said, “We (sued) for reputational reasons. In a service business, your reputation is all you’ve got. This is not all that unusual in Silicon Valley. Using the intellectual property of vendors is very common in technology.”

PICA’s services include brand protection, loss prevention, risk management and security consulting.

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