Internal Circuitry
Assouline & Berlowe, P.A. Partner and Patent Attorney Peter Koziol was featured in an article on the front page of the Daily Business Review entitled “Justice Watch: A New Frontier in IP Law.” Mr. Koziol discussed a recent dismissal for his client, Passcovery Co. Ltd., regarding alleged patent infringement and copyright infringement.
In 2013, Elcomsoft sued: a programmer; a rival Russian password security company; and, that rival company’s Director General in the United States for violating the copyright law (under provisions of the U.S. DMCA) and alleged violations of its 2010 and 2011 GPU password hacking patents.
According to pleadings in the case, one of the original programmers for Elcomsoft, Ivan Golubev, broke his ties with Elcomsoft around 2010 and began working with long time rival Russian password recovery company Passcovery Co. Ltd. According to the record, Passcovery is owned by Denis Gladysh who had also been making competing password recovery software under the Accentsoft brand since at least as early as 1999.
In its Complaint, Elcomsoft claimed that Golubev violated an employment agreement with it in Russia, and stole its ideas and infringed its U.S. Patent when he began working with Passcovery. However, in support of a motion to dismiss Golubev, Passcovery, Co. Ltd. and Passcovery owner Denis Gladysh denied any wrong doing, said the GPU password hacking was obvious, made it clear that they contended that Elcomsoft forged the employment agreement, and showed that they have no significant ties to the United States. Golubev did not deny that he authored Elcomsoft’s software, but stated in a sworn declaration that the Employment Agreement that Elcomsoft says transfers the rights to the software to is a fraud.
After reviewing the pleadings and the argument presented by both sides the Federal Court Judge dismissed the case against Passcovery, Golubev and Gladysh on the federal common law doctrine of forum non conveniens.
In her 11 page opinion, the Judge said it was unnecessary to decide whether or not there was any violation of U.S. law or if the Court had jurisdiction over the parties, because all the parties reside in Russia and that there was no evidence that there was not an adequate remedy to use the Russian Courts. She found that to take jurisdiction of the case would be inconvenient for the parties, the court, and the U.S. jurors. Consequently, she declined assuming jurisdiction, and judgment was entered to dismiss the case.
Although the case was filed in the “Rocket Docket” of the Eastern District of Virginia, Peter A. Koziol, Esq. of South Florida firm Assouline & Berlowe defended the case on behalf of the defendants. Mr. Koziol is an internationally recognized Boca Raton based patent attorney that has served as special trial counsel pro hac vice in many international matters and for cases filed in Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, California and Kansas. Ccontact Peter below for any Intellectual Property matters.
Partner Peter A. Koziol
Registered Patent Attorney
Intellectual Property Litigation
2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 150
Boca Raton, Florida 33431
Main: 561.361.6566
Fax: 561.3616466
Email: PAK@assoulineberlowe.com
http://www.assoulineberlowe.com/
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