SAS Institute, Inc. v. S & H Computer Systems, Inc.

605 F. Supp. 816, 225 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 916, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22050
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedMarch 6, 1985
Docket82-3669, 82-3670
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 605 F. Supp. 816 (SAS Institute, Inc. v. S & H Computer Systems, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SAS Institute, Inc. v. S & H Computer Systems, Inc., 605 F. Supp. 816, 225 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 916, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22050 (M.D. Tenn. 1985).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

WISEMAN, Chief Judge.

This civil action represents the consolidation of cross actions filed by the parties. SAS Institute, Inc. [Institute] in its action seeks relief against S & H Computer Systems, Inc. [S & H] based on claims of copyright infringement, breach of contract, fraud, trade secret misappropriation, and unfair competition, relating to the preparation by S & H of a computer software system for performing statistical analysis which was allegedly copied and derived from the Institute’s copyrighted and widely marketed system, known by its registered trademark “SAS.” S & H for its part seeks declaratory judgment with respect to the copyright and breach of contract claims, and seeks recovery against the Institute on claims of breach of a separate contract entered into by the parties in an effort to settle this dispute, and for interference with a contract between S & H and a third party. Jurisdiction of this Court is based on diversity of citizenship, federal question, and 28 U.S.C. § 1338, respecting copyright and unfair competition claims. State law claims are also asserted, based on pendent jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of this Court is not disputed.

The case was tried without a jury on September 12 through 20, 1983, with the Institute proceeding as plaintiff. This memorandum sets forth the Court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. To the extent that findings of fact actually represent conclusions of law, they should be so considered, and vice versa.

Because the Court finds in favor of the Institute on both the copyright and contract claims, and grants the requested re *818 lief, the Court declines to address the trade secret, Lanham Act, fraud and pendent state claims.

The Court requested proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law from the parties, and has adopted many of those submitted, verbatim, as the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the Court.

At the request of the Court, the parties agreed to the appointment of an expert to assist the Court in this case and expressly waived the disclosure requirements of Rule 706, Fed.R.Evid. The Court acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable assistance of Dr. Robert I. Winner, Ph.D., the expert appointed under this agreement.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff SAS Institute, Inc. is a North Carolina corporation which markets a computer programming system for performing statistical analysis under the registered trademark “SAS.” SAS presently operates only on IBM computers, and IBM-compatible computers offered by several other companies.

2. The Institute is testing a version of SAS to operate on VAX computers manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation [DEC]. The Institute decided to develop a VAX version of SAS in response to SAS user desires. The Institute annually distributed “software ballots” to its users, seeking suggestions for enhancements to SAS. After the desire for non-IBM versions of SAS appeared as a strong user desire for two successive years, the Institute in 1981 commenced such a project. The VAX version of SAS has been distributed to over 200 so-called “beta test” sites. Beta testing is the final phase of operational testing prior to actual production release.

3. SAS has been marketed over the years in a series of successively more advanced editions or “releases,” each identified by a unique number. This action primarily involves SAS Release 79.5. SAS 79.5, released in March, 1981, was the result of an extensive development process growing out of earlier SAS releases, particularly SAS 76.2, released in July, 1976.

4. The development process which led to SAS 79.5 required approximately five years, and more than 18 man-years of labor. Exhibit P-38. This process included both the addition of new procedures and major enhancements to existing procedures in SAS. One of the Institute’s expert witnesses, Dr. David Peterson, testified that approximately 67% of the lines of computer program source code contained in SAS 79.5 are “new,” that is, not carried over from SAS 76.2. S & H’s only expert, Alan Merten, agreed with the substance of Dr. Peterson’s testimony in this regard, his estimate of the number of lines of new source code (70%) differing by at most a few percentage points.

5. The source code for a computer program is the series of instructions to the computer for carrying out the various tasks which are performed by the program, expressed in a programming language which is easily comprehensible to appropriately trained human beings. The source code serves two functions. First, it can be treated as comparable to text material, and in that respect can be printed out, read and studied, and loaded into a computer’s memory, in much the same way that documents are loaded into word processing equipment. Second, the source code can be used to cause the computer to execute the program. To accomplish this, the source code is “compiled.” This involves an automatic process, performed by the computer under the control of a program called a “compiler,” which translates the source code into “object code,” which is very difficult to comprehend by human beings. The object code version of the program is then loaded into the computer’s memory and causes the computer to carry out the program function.

6. Although S & H argued that lines of new source code might have represented trivial or functionally' insignificant alterations, the Institute’s president, Dr. James Goodnight, testified that SAS source code was not changed except for significant *819 functional purposes. Both Dr. Goodnight and Dr. Peterson testified that every functional change or enhancement in a computer program must be accomplished by the addition or insertion of new source code. The Institute’s evidence that substantial new portions, including totally new procedures and new blocks of source code in existing procedures, were added in SAS 79.5 was not rebutted, and is accepted by the Court.

7. The Court finds that SAS 79.5 contained numerous and substantial additions, enhancements, revisions, and other new material not contained in SAS 76.2, and that this material taken as a whole qualified SAS 79.5 as an “original work of authorship” under the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.

8. The Copyright Office of the United States Library of Congress issued copyright registration no. TXU 96-620, effective June 23, 1982, which on its face is applicable to SAS Release 79.5 and lists the Institute as the owner of copyright. Exhibit P-2. This copyright registration has not been revoked or otherwise altered.

9. The Institute does not sell copies of SAS. Rather, it markets SAS through individual contracts with each customer, under which the customer is licensed to use SAS in accordance with the terms and conditions of the license agreement. This case primarily involves a license agreement between the Institute and S & H, a Tennessee corporation located in Nashville, Tennessee.

10. The events leading to the licensing of SAS by S & H were initiated by a small group of faculty and staff at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

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Bluebook (online)
605 F. Supp. 816, 225 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 916, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22050, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sas-institute-inc-v-s-h-computer-systems-inc-tnmd-1985.