The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit addressed the
copyright protection afforded to an information database and
whether comments made to a reporter while litigation was ongoing
violated the disparagement clause in a separation agreement.
Ultimately, the Court affirmed a judgment against the defendant for
copyright infringement and against its founder for breach of
contract. In doing so, the Court upheld the findings that
plaintiff's database copyright was valid, even though it was
only entitled to a narrow scope of protection, and that the
defendant's founder's comments to a reporter violated his
contract with the plaintiff. Infogroup, Inc. v. DatabaseUSA.com
LLC, Case No. 18-3723 (8th Cir. Apr. 27, 2020) (Benton,
J.).
