Preliminary Injunction Granted to Protect Advantage Software

Originally published at: www.businesswire.com/
ECi Software Solutions Granted Preliminary Injunction Against Prosperity Computer Solutions

ECi Software Solutions, a leader in cloud-based business management solutions, has announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, has granted an agreed preliminary injunction prohibiting Prosperity Computer Solutions from accessing, using, modifying, copying or tampering with ECi’s Advantage software and prohibiting two former Advantage customers from using the Advantage software.

The agreed injunction is the latest development in an ongoing lawsuit by ECi against Prosperity. ECi filed suit against Prosperity and the two former customers in August 2018 alleging, among other things, that Prosperity had violated the terms of a 2016 settlement agreement, that it had misappropriated ECi trade secrets and that it had conspired with two former customers to violate ECi’s intellectual property rights in the Advantage software.

“As a software company, our intellectual property is critical to our differentiation in the market and our long-term success as a business,” said John Maiuri, President, LBMH Division of ECi Software Solutions. “It is prudent that we take any means necessary to protect it. We view the preliminary injunction as an important first step in our case against Prosperity and the two customers.”

According to the terms of the preliminary injunction, Prosperity is “enjoined from directly or indirectly accessing, using, modifying, copying, or tampering with the Advantage software for any purposes whatsoever and regardless of where located,” and is also prohibited from “assisting, encouraging, or facilitating ECi’s current or former customers or third parties in modifying, tampering with, or copying the Advantage software for any purposes.” Similar limitations were put on specific, executable commands found within Advantage software that set the expiration date for authorized licenses. The agreed findings in the order state that “Prosperity used the [commands] without ECi’s express or implied consent to change the license expiration dates in the versions of the Advantage software utilized by [two customers] after [those customers] had ceased making monthly payments to ECi.”

“Enforcement of our intellectual property rights is of paramount importance to ECi,” said Gordon P. Kushner, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of ECi Software Solutions. “When we were presented with the evidence involving Prosperity and two former customers, we moved swiftly to protect those rights through the courts. And we would do so again in the future if necessary to protect our intellectual property.”

ECi Advantage software equips lumber and hardware retailers with business management software to grow their businesses. It is part of ECi’s suite of business software solutions for the lumber, building materials and hardlines sector, which provide complete back-office-to-inventory-to-POS systems that bring all business functions together in one cloud-based software to improve efficiency and increase profitability.