Preliminary Injunction Denied for Copying Database Entries
The District Court of Minnesota denied a preliminary injunction based on copyright infringement in Windgate Software, LLC v. Minnesota Computers, Inc., 2007 WL 951668 (D. Minn. 3/27/07).
Windgate manages a database called RISC Analysis that manages thousands of replacement parts for various IBM products. Windgate obtained a copyright for the database. Minnesota Computers buys and sells IBM parts. Minnesota copied some of the part numbers and descriptions from Windgate's database and posted them on the Minnesota Computers site.
The court denied the preliminary injunction on two main grounds. First, MC did not copy any copyrightable elements of the database, so Windgate could not establish likelihood of success. Second, Windgate only presented evidence of commercial harm; it could not establish the requisite irreparable harm.
