Dow Jones & Co. indicated to a federal judge Friday that it wanted roughly $10,000 per infringed article from financial information service Briefing.com to settle a suit accusing the Web-based company of swiping verbatim content minutes after publication, writes Christie Smythe of Law360.com, which covers the legal industry.
Smythe writes, “Robert P. LoBue of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, who represents Dow Jones, told Judge Victor Marrero of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday that the company had made a proposal to settle the case and was seeking compensation in line with a $10,000-per-incident amount upheld in a 1999 federal appeals court ruling.
“‘It’s the incremental effect of chipping away at the Dow Jones franchise,’ LoBue said when the judge asked him why damages might be appropriate given that Briefing.com already agreed to stop using Dow Jones’ material.
“In the ruling cited, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld an award of $10,000-per-article to Japanese business news corporation Nihon Keizai Shimbun for similar allegations of copyright infringement.
“‘We have over 100 articles infringed in just a two-week period,’ LoBue said, adding that there were some ‘yardsticks available’ to begin settlement discussions.”
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