Yojna, Inc. v. American Medical Data Systems, Inc.

667 F. Supp. 446, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7283
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedJuly 24, 1987
DocketCiv. 86-72334
StatusPublished

This text of 667 F. Supp. 446 (Yojna, Inc. v. American Medical Data Systems, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yojna, Inc. v. American Medical Data Systems, Inc., 667 F. Supp. 446, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7283 (E.D. Mich. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

COHN, District Judge.

I.

This case involves a dispute over the ownership of the environmental software program PROTEUS (Prototyping Por The End User) and its various versions used in microcomputers. Its place in the' microcomputer is shown on Exhibit 1, attached. Plaintiff, Yojna, Inc. (Yojna), initially sought a declaration that it is the owner of PROTEUS, versions 1.0 (or P-1), 2.0 or (P-2), and 3.0 (or P-3), together with enhancements and subsequent versions. Yojna also asked, inter alia, for a money judgment for unpaid invoices for services rendered. Defendant, American Medical Data Systems, Inc. (AMDS), sought a declaration that it owned PROTEUS and asked for certain credits against the money claim of Yojna.

The complaint was filed June 2, 1986. On February 2, 1987, AMDS’s third-party complaint against Methodist Health Systems, Inc. (MHS), its former parent, was stayed pending resolution of a case now pending in Memphis, Tennessee between MHS and Integrated Medical Networks, Inc. (IMN), AMDS’s new parent. On March 17, 1987, the parties agreed to sever the cross damage claims.

The case went to trial on March 23, 1987 and concluded on April 22, 1987 after eleven trial days. On April 14, 1987, based on admissions by AMDS, a partial final judgment in Yojna’s favor was entered in the amount of $234,662.41, leaving $122,000 in dispute. Enforcement of the judgment has been stayed pending an appeal by AMDS, which has posted a letter of credit to secure Yojna. On April 22, 1987, based on admissions by Yojna, a preliminary injunction was entered giving AMDS access to the source codes of PROTEUS 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.3 with certain limitations on their use.

After trial, on May 11, 1987, AMDS moved that PROTEUS 4.0 (or P-4) be included in the preliminary injunction. AMDS argued that access to P-4 is essential to its competitiveness in the health care industry; that it (AMDS) partly financed the development of P-4 since it was billed for work on P-4; that P-4 was the current version at the beginning of 1986 (up to *447 which time it had been billed by Yojna); and that P-4 had been presented to AMDS at that time. In the Joint Pretrial Statement, Yojna had said nothing about the PROTEUS versions 3.3 and 4.0. Yojna took the fatuous position, though, that there was no such product as “P-4,” but rather only an “engineering prototype” existed in early 1986; that AMDS could identify no effective document giving it (AMDS) a right to any version subsequent to P-1; that the principals of the parties never orally discussed AMDS’s right to P-4; and that AMDS could not show it contributed monetarily to the development of P-4. In a draft judgment filed after trial, Yojna conceded AMDS’s right to a perpetual, royalty-free license to PROTEUS 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.3 with the right to sublicense the program in the health care industry. AMDS, on the other hand, doggedly maintained in a draft judgment its exclusive right to all versions of PROTEUS.

The trial record consists of the testimony in open court and by deposition of a number of former and present employees of Yojna and AMDS as well as executives of MHS involved in the Yojna-AMDS relationship from its inception in April of 1982 to its break-up in May of 1986, plus letters, memoranda, draft agreements, agreements, studies, manuals, accounting statements and the like.

The testimony of the principal witnesses to the relationship — Shreekant Bedekar, owner and president of Yojna, and Edward 0. (Neil) Douglas, principal officer of AMDS during the relationship — did not vary substantially. According to each of them, Yojna formally owns PROTEUS while AMDS has a perpetual, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to use PROTEUS 3.3 in the health care industry, plus access to the source codes to the various versions. Neither Bedekar nor Douglas was examined at trial on PROTEUS 4.0. According to their testimony, no agreement was reached regarding AMDS’s rights to enhancements and subsequent versions of PROTEUS developed by Yojna. Their testimony is ambiguous as to the obligation of Yojna to stay out of the health care industry.

At the conclusion of oral argument on May 5, 1987, the Court advised the parties that it intended to find that Yojna owns PROTEUS and that AMDS has a perpetual, royalty-free license for its use up to version 3.3, including access to the source codes, and that as to the health care industry AMDS’s rights are exclusive since that was the true understanding of the parties notwithstanding any writing to the contrary. Yojna disputes only the exclusivity aspect of the Court’s proposed findings.

On June 11, 1987, the Court conducted a hearing on the motion to include P-4 in the preliminary injunction. The purpose of the hearing was to apprise the Court of the relationship between the parties as to P-4’s development and its stage of development as of December 31, 1985. The Court ruled from the bench that AMDS is entitled to the source code of PROTEUS 3.3 plus usable improvements and enhancements existing as of December 31,1985, whether mere discrete functions or a fully developed version of PROTEUS. The Court reopened the proofs on this issue, and the hearing was continued on June 18, 1987.

The proofs submitted at the P-4 hearing show that P-4 RUNTIME was licensed to one user as of mid-1985, althout it appears that P-4 was not released at that time since the product was not “stable.” By November of 1985, P-4’s major categories and related tasks had been defined and a P-4 reference manual had been written. In February of 1986, Yojna demonstrated P-4 to AMDS. By May of 1986, a complete P-4 reference manual was developed with a 1985, 1986 copyright notice.

On July 9, 1987, the Court entered a stipulated order granting AMDS access to P-4. The order entitles AMDS to a copy of the source code for P-4 GENERATE (and also P-4 RUNTIME, if in separate form) as it existed on December 31, 1985, together with the related documentation of November, 1985. The receipt of the code and documentation was conditioned on the code including the P-4 DATA DICTIONARY, P-4 DATA EDITING, and P-4 VALIDATION modules. The order goes on to *448 address Yojna’s rights in developments subsequent to December 31, 1985; AMDS’s duty to protect against dissemination of the source code; and a disclaimer of warranties.

II.

More particularly, I find:

1. AMDS was organized in April of 1982 by MHS after discussion with Yojna to provide microcomputer capability, including application software programs, to small- and medium-size hospitals. One of the principal features of AMDS’s efforts was to link the information storage capability of microcomputers in a single system without the necessity of a remote main frame computer. The application programs were intended to be turnkey and included programs to record admissions, discharges and transfers, charge postings, patient accounting, collections, bad debts, accounts payable, payroll, general ledgers and the like.

2. There was some initial uncertainty as to who would own AMDS. For a time, it was MHS’s intention to include Yojna as a stockholder. By the end of January, 1983, MHS decided it would run AMDS as a wholly-owned subsidiary.

3.

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667 F. Supp. 446, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yojna-inc-v-american-medical-data-systems-inc-mied-1987.